Criterium du Dauphine: Chris Froome extends lead as Thibaut Pinot wins stage six in Meribel

Chris Froome extended his overall lead of the Criterium du Dauphine by dropping his closest rivals on a mountainous sixth stage won by Thibaut Pinot.

Pinot (FDJ.fr) attacked out of a breakaway group alongside Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) with 10km left and then out-sprinted his fellow Frenchman at the summit finish in Meribel.

Dan Martin (Etixx - Quick-Step) crossed the line 1min 4sec down in third after accelerating out of the chasing peloton with 500m remaining, closely followed three seconds later by Froome (Team Sky), who was the only rider capable of going with him.

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) showed an improvement on his poor display on stage five but could still only finish eight seconds down on Froome in sixth on the day, while Richie Porte (BMC Racing) suffered a drop in form and crossed the line another six seconds later in 10th.

The result sees Froome stretch his lead at the top of the general classification over second-placed Porte to 21 seconds, with Bardet now on the same time in third after an aggressive and impressive day's riding.

Despite distancing Porte, Contador has slipped to fifth, 35 seconds off the yellow jersey, and now has a substantial amount of ground to make up on Sunday's final stage if he is to rescue a place on the podium.

Froome, on the other hand, carries both a healthy lead and excellent form into stage seven, which covers 151km of Alpine terrain and ends with a category-three summit finish at Superdevoluy. Find out more about the route in our race guide.

Stage six result

1 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr, 4:24:16
2 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, same time
3 Dan Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step, +1:04
4 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +1:07
5 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre-Merida, +1:15
6 Alberto Contador (Esp) same time
7 Diego Rosa (Ita) Astana, +1:17
8 Adam Yates (GB) Orica-GreenEdge, st
9 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step, +1:21
10 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing, st

General classification

1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 25:50:22
2 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing, +21sec
3 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, same time
4 Dan Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step, +30
5 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff, +35
6 Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step, +56
7 Adam Yates (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, +1:02
8 Diego Rosa (Ita) Astana, +1:18
9 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre-Merida, +1:35
10 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr, +2:12