Froome takes yellow in impressive show of strength

Chris Froome moved into the Tour de France's yellow jersey with a huge show of strength from Team Sky on the first proper day in the mountains.

Froome attacked on the final climb to Ax 3 Domaines, moving clear with 5.5 kilometres of the category one climb remaining and pulling clear as his rivals Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde were unable to respond.

The stage win, Froome's first of the Tour, was enough to put the Briton in yellow with South African Daryl Impey dropped early on the stage.

Froome crossed the line 51 seconds ahead of team-mate Richie Porte, with the pair moving into first and second place overall.

Valverde was third, one minute 10 seconds back with Contador distanced by one minute and 46 seconds as he came home in eighth place.

Sky had set a strong, steady pace at the front of the peloton up the hors categorie Col de Pailheres, carefully monitoring a series of attacks which came throughout the stage.

The last and most threatening came from Colombian Nairo Quintana who led over the Pailheres, the highest peak on this Tour, and at the foot of the final climb to Ax 3 Domaines.

But he was caught midway up the hill and soon after, Froome pulled clear to leave his rivals in his wake.

Froome won stage seven of last year's Tour in La Plance des Belles Filles, when that victory put his team-mate Bradley Wiggins in a yellow jersey he would keep all the way to Paris.

Now Froome’s clear goal is to emulate that achievement, and the manner of today’s attack has already put him in a strong position in the general classification standings.

Today’s stage was always billed as the one which would see the real battle commence but the ease with which Froome climbed away suggests it may not be a fair fight.

Daniel Martin led home the Garmin-Sharp team to finish in 15th position, two minutes and 34 seconds behind Froome, and the Irishman moves up to 13th position in the general classification.

His cousin Nicolas Roche moved in the other direction, coming home just over four minutes behind the stage winner and he drops to 22nd position overall.