The day saw several breakaway groups attempt to move away from the peloton on the 140 kilometre mountainous route, with a five man group of France’s Cyril Gautier, Colombia’s Dayer Quintana, Italy’s Enrico Gasparotto, Poland’s Bartosz Huzarski and Ukraine’s Andriy Grivko providing the most dangerous effort.

Their move, which began with 60 kilometres to the finish, began to fall apart inside the final five kilometres as they tackled the seventh climb of the day to Vaujany.

Team Sky’s Mikel Landa led the pursuit in the closing stages as Gasparotto looked to go solo to the line, with the Spaniard working to boost the chances of team-mate Froome.

The Briton, who won the general classification in 2013 and 2015, opted to attack his rivals after Landa’s efforts with only Australia’s Richie Porte able to follow.

Eventually Froome was able to dislodge his former team-mate, who left Team Sky for BMC Racing at the start of the season, to go clear to claim the stage win in 3hr, 32min and 20sec.

Porte eventually came in one second adrift of Froome, while the yellow jersey of Spain’s Alberto Contador ended 21 seconds behind the stage winner.

“It's an amazing feeling, it's always good to win a race before the Tour de France,” said Froome, whose two victories in the Grand Tour have followed claiming the overall win at the Critérium du Dauphiné.

“The team rode very well today to take me to the final climb in the best position, they set it up perfectly for me.

“I didn't expect to gain time on Alberto Contador on such a short climb but I know from past experiences that he never gives up, we'll see what he's got tomorrow.”

Froome now leads the overall classification by seven seconds from Porte, heading into the final two days of the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour race.

Despite time losses on today’s stage, Contador remains in the top three in the overall standings but lies 27 seconds off the race lead.

Tomorrow will see the peloton tackle a 141km route from La Rochette to Méribel.