The breakaway that formed earlier was more a splitting of the peloton than an attack, with 54 riders counted up the road – representing every team other than Bora-hansgrohe, Team Sky and LottoNL-Jumbo.

The former tried to amend that by drilling the pace on the front of the peloton, but they only succeeded in giving the GC teams a free ride as the gap grew to more than seven minutes.

At the front, splits kept happening, with Britain’s Ben Swift (UAE Team Emirates) among those regularly getting in the front part, while Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) snaffled some climbing points and Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) won the intermediate sprint.

At the top of the category-one Col de Vars it was Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) at the front, with Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Darwin Atapuma (UAE Team Emirates) and Romain Sicard (Direct Energie) on his tail.

In the yellow jersey group, the benefit of Bora-hansgrohe’s pace-setting was clear, as Luke Rowe and Christian Knees guided Team Sky almost all the way up.

He is also now guaranteed to keep the polka dot jersey as long as he reaches Paris, and should join team-mate and green jersey Michael Matthews on the final podium.

In the general classification, meanwhile, a late dig from Bardet was enough to snatch third place behind Atapuma – Froome unable to get past him to deny the Frenchman bonus seconds on the line.

Those four bonus seconds, plus a two-second split to Uran, means Bardet is now 23 seconds behind Froome, and six clear of Uran.

Yates, meanwhile, despite being dropped by Meintjes late on the climb, cut his losses to claim a top-ten place on the day and stay 2’16” clear of the South African in the white jersey.

Froome and Yates now faces a flattish stage 19 and the 22km time trial in Marseille to defend their respective leads before the ceremonial finish in Paris.

Tour de France 2017: stage 18 – result

1) Warren Barguil (FRA) – Team Sunweb – 4.40.33hrs
2) Darwin Atapuma (COL) – UAE Team Emirates +20″
3) Romain Bardet (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale – ST
4) Chris Froome (GBR) – Team Sky
5) Rigoberto Uran (COL) – Cannondale-Drapac +22″
6) Mikel Landa (ESP) – Team Sky +32″
7) Louis Meintjes (RSA) – UAE Team Emirates +37″
8) Daniel Martin (IRL) – QuickStep Floors +39″
9) Simon Yates (GBR) – Orica-Scott +59″
10) Alberto Contador (ESP) – Trek-Segafredo +1.09

General classification

1) Chris Froome (GBR) – Team Sky – 78.08.19hrs
2) Romain Bardet (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale +23″
3) Rigoberto Uran (COL) – Cannondale-Drapac +29″
4) Mikel Landa (ESP) – Team Sky +1.36
5) Fabio Aru (ITA) – Astana +1.55
6) Daniel Martin (IRL) – QuickStep Floors +2.56
7) Simon Yates (GBR) – Orica-Scott +4.46
8) Louis Meintjes (RSA) – UAE Team Emirates +6.52
9) Warren Barguil (FRA) – Team Sunweb +8.22
10) Alberto Contador (ESP) – Trek-Segafredo +8.34