Fabio Aru (Astana) claimed his first Tour de France stage win with an explosive performance on La Planche des Belles Filles on stage 5, with Chris Froome (Team Sky) returning to the scene of his first Tour stage win to take the yellow jersey of overall leader.
Aru, who switched his focus to the Tour de France after a knee injury ruled him out of the Giro d'Italia, made a real statement of intent, springing clear of the group of general classification favourites just over two kilometres from the summit of the steep final climb to win alone.
Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) accelerated away from the whittled down chasing group on the brutal final ramp to the line to take second place, 16 seconds in arrears, while Froome finished third, a further four seconds back.
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"I'm amazed. I attacked and gave it everything. I wanted to see who would move because Team Sky was setting a fast pace. I wanted to see what they had," said Aru, who took great pride in completing his Grand Tour set in the newly-acquired tricolore jersey of Italian champion.
"The final 300 metres were terrible but then when I looked back with 200 metres to go and I knew I had it."
The Tour de France hasn't featured a first-category climb this early in the race for 25 years yet, as just one of three summit finishes on the 2017 route, it wasn't an opportunity to be wasted.
How it unfolded
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