The 150-kilometre mountain stage from Oyonnax to Le Grand-Bornand featured three category-one climbs, offering a major test for the general classification contenders.

Pogačar has looked the strongest rider to date and the Slovenian underlined his status as favourite by attacking on the penultimate climb.

Having been supported by his UAE Emirates team early in the stage, Pogačar launched a solo attack from the peloton and set off in pursuit of the remaining riders in the breakaway.

He caught Spain’s Ion Izagirre and Canada’s Michael Woods.

The trio were unable to catch Teuns, as the Bahrain-Victorious athlete remained strong in the final kilometres to win the stage in 3 hours 54 min 41sec.

Teuns celebrated his second stage win at the race, with his previous triumph coming back in 2019.

"I have had a difficult year until now, as I had came short at every goal I had aimed at," Teuns said.

"Now I can finally celebrate.

"I want to dedicate this victory to my grandad, who passed away just before the Tour.

"His funeral was held only one week before the Tour.

"I was thinking of this during the last 10 kilometres: it has been very emotional for me."

Izagirre finished 44sec down as the runner-up on the stage, Woods ending a further three behind in third place.

Pogačar ended fourth on the stage at 49sec down and was able to reflect on taking a major step towards winning back-to-back Tour de France titles.

The Slovenian prised the yellow jersey from Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel, who was unsurprisingly among a group to lose in excess of 21 minutes on the stage.

"The rivals thought they could break us as a team, but they have seen we can do a great work," Pogačar said.

"I guess many riders paid the effort from yesterday.

"We will see day by day who my biggest rival is.

"For now, we have taken the yellow jersey and we have proven we have a super strong team."

Pogačar leads the race by 1min 4sec8 from Belgium’s Wout van Aert, after the Jumbo-Visma rider produced a strong performance to remain in second overall.

Kazakhstan’s Alexey Lutsenko lies third overall at 4:38 down, with Colombia’s Rigoberto Urán a further eight seconds behind.

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz of Ecuador are five minutes off the pace.

Britain’s Geraint Thomas and Slovenia’s Primož Roglič, the 2020 runner-up, were among a group to finish 35 minutes down.

The two riders began among the general classification favourites, but saw their hopes effectively ended by injuries sustained in crashes in the opening week.