Over the 155.2 kilometres from Nice to the stage finish in the Alps, he was in a breakaway group with just team-mates Rohan Dennis of Australia and Dutch rider Steven Kruijswijk left in the pack at the bottom of the 15km-long Col de Turini.

A group of three stayed out in front as everyone else fell back to the pack - with only Gregor Mühlberger of Movistar surviving that attack.

With the leading pack bunching up again, it was not until Britain's Adam Yates of Ineos Grenadiers kicked with 7km to go with Roglič, Ineos Grenadiers rider Martinez and Colombian Nairo Quintana of Arkea-Samsic that there was a move to catch Mühlberger.

With six kilometres to go, Mühlberger was caught by Roglič and Martínez.

Simon Yates from BikeExchange-Jayco was able to move out of the pack and up with the front two along with Quintana, but it was the Slovenian who had the freshest legs, winning in 4 hours 2min 47sec in a sprint to the line with Martínez.

Two seconds adrift in third was Yates, with Quintana a further seven back, followed by Portugal's João Almeida of UAE Team Emirates, 11 seconds off of Roglič.

All within a minute of the winner were American Brandon McNulty of UAE Team Emirates, Australian Jack Haig of Bahrain Victorious, Adam Yates, France's Guillaume Martin of Cofidis and Dutch rider Wout Poels of Bahrain Victorious, who completed the top 10.

In the overall standings, Roglič leads the standings in a combined time of 26:26:11, with Simon Yates 47 seconds behind in second and Martínez a minute adrift.

Adam Yates, Simon's twin brother, is fourth and Quintana is fifth.

The final stage will start and end in Nice on a hilly 115.6km route.