Friday 10 June 2016 23:02, UK
Chris Froome sounded a warning to his Tour de France rivals by taking the overall lead of the Criterium du Dauphine with victory on stage five.
The Team Sky rider attacked out of a heavily reduced peloton with 2.6km remaining to the summit finish in Vaujony and beat Richie Porte (BMC Racing) into second place by one second.
Previous race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) initially followed Froome's acceleration but couldn't maintain the pace and was dropped about 400m later, eventually finishing 21 seconds down in fifth.
Froome, who started the day four seconds behind on Contador, received 10 bonus seconds for the win and now leads second-placed Porte in the general classification by seven seconds.
Contador's difficult day relegated him to 27 seconds back in third.
Froome is now in pole position to win the Dauphine for the third time in four years and his aggressive performance suggested he is currently in far better form than Contador with just three weeks left to the start of the Tour.
The 31-year-old Briton initially looked to be struggling on the 6.4km to Vaujony, after being monetarily distanced by an attack from Dan Martin (Etixx - Quick-Step) with 3.1km to go.
But Froome slowly hauled himself back to the front group and immediately launched a ferocious attack that only Contador and Porte could follow.
Contador soon started grimacing and fell away, leaving Porte as Froome's only follower.
The pair, who are close friends and former team-mates from Porte's time with Team Sky, worked together to distance Contador, before Froome sprinted ahead with 150m remaining to take his fourth win of the season and maximum bonus seconds.
The eight-day Dauphine continues on Saturday with a 141km sixth stage starting in La Rochette and ending with a category-one summit finish in Meribel. Find out more about the route in our race guide.
Stage five result
1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 3:32:20
2 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing, +1sec
3 Adam Yates (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, +19
4 Dan Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step, same time
5 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff, +21
6 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +25
7 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Cannondale, +27
8 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo, st
9 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre-Merida, st
10 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step, st
General classification
1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 21:24:59
2 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing, +7sec
3 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff, +27
4 Dan Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step, +37
5 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step, +42
6 Adam Yates (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, +52
7 Diego Rosa (Ita) Astana, +1:08
8 Daniel Navarro (Esp) Cofidis, +1:16
9 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo, +1:21
10 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre-Merida, +1:27
