Tour de France 2017: Chris Froome fails to reclaim yellow jersey as Warren Barguil takes Bastille Day victory

A strategic long-distance attack by Froome’s team-mate Mikel Landa piled pressure on the other Tour contenders

Chris Froome lost the yellow jersey in Peyragudes on Thursday (Getty)

Concerns that Chris Froome’s defeat and loss of the yellow jersey on Thursday could see the Sky rider in more trouble on Friday lifted partly as the Briton completed the Tour’s second leg in the Pyrenees without any further difficulties.

Team Sky did not regain the overall lead, but they have piled on the pressure on the other Tour contenders with a strategic long-distance attack by Froome’s team-mate Mikel Landa, whilst Froome stayed behind in the group containing yellow jersey Fabio Aru.

Froome even had the energy to launch two of his driving attacks on the short, punchy stage’s final climb, the Mur de Peguere and again tested Aru on the sweeping, ultra- fast descent to Foix. Although neither move succeeded, the Briton confirmed later his race condition felt stronger.

“Yesterday was a difficult day for me but today I felt a lot better and we played a good game strategically,” Froome told French television.

Landa’s long-distance move, made together with Spanish double Tour winner Alberto Contador and later with France’s Warren Barguil and Colombian Nairo Quintana, gained nearly three minutes at one point, which would have put the Sky rider into the yellow jersey.

A concerted pursuit led by Ireland’s Dan Martin over the summit of the climb limited the gap, however, but Landa was nonetheless able to gain two minutes and move from seventh to fifth overall and is now just 69 seconds down on Aru.

“Mikel was not a long way back on GC and he’s gained some important time,” Froome, eighth on the stage, commented. “Maybe the next few days we can do the same thing again.”

“He’s a real threat now for the overall title in Paris, and it’s a great card for us to play especially when Astana don’t have the numbers to control the race.”

Frenchman Barguil won stage 13 on Bastille Day (Getty)

France, meanwhile, could celebrate their second Pyrenean win in two days and a victory on Bastille Day to boot as Barguil outpowered Quintana with a cunningly calculated charge for the line in Foix. The Breton, currently leading the King of the Mountains, powered round the outside of the stage’s last U-turn bend as the four breakaways approached the finish, using his momentum perfectly to take his first ever Tour stage win and first victory in four years.

Aru remains in yellow, just six seconds ahead, as the Tour moves away from the Pyrenees and into the tough, undulating terrain of the Massif this weekend. Isolated in the main peloton, the 27-year-old Sardinian has lost one valuable climbing team-mate, Dane Jakob Fuglsang, and he may well have problems controlling the race in the days to come.

“Mikel was a way off overall, but I can’t follow everybody when they attack, I’ll give him less room for manoeuvre from now on,” Aru commented. “But losing Jakob is a big blow, and I’ll miss him in the mountains.” Meanwhile Froome, all things being equal, now has until Wednesday’s first Alpine stage to build on yesterday’s bounceback.