The pendulum at the Critérium du Dauphiné swung towards Chris Froome on the first of its three decisive legs in the high mountains as the Sky rider claimed stage victory at Vaujany to divest Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) of the yellow jersey of race leader.
Only Richie Porte (BMC) could follow when Froome launched his vicious acceleration 2,500 metres from the summit of the finishing climb, and though the Australian shared the pace-setting in the final kilometre, he was unable to match his former teammate’s final searing effort with 220 metres remaining.
In a high-octane finale, Froome had delegated his teammate Mikel Landa to go on the offensive on the lower slopes of the climb, and the Basque duly inched past earlier escapee Enrico Gasparotto (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) on the steepest section, only to be caught and passed in turn by his leader with a little more than two kilometres to go.
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“It's an amazing feeling. It's always good to win a race before the Tour de France. The team rode very well day to take me to the final climb in the best position. They set it up perfectly for me,” Froome said. “I didn't expect to gain time on Alberto Contador on such a short climb.”
Contador was tucked on Froome’s wheel at the time of the decisive attack but was simply unable to follow the Briton, who surged clear with disarming facility, burning the Spaniard off his wheel. It was immediately clear that Contador would lose his jersey, and he battled to limit his losses in the company of Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) and Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), eventually placing fifth on the stage, 21 seconds behind Froome.
In the general classification, Porte lies second, just 7 seconds behind Froome, while Contador slips to third overall, 27 seconds down. The Etixx-QuickStep duo of Martin and Julian Alaphilippe are fourth and fifth, 37 seconds and 42 seconds adrift, respectively.
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