Froome jabs a spectator in the face during Tour de France

It was the fifth victory for a British rider in the first eight stages of this Tour following three early successes for Mark Cavendish and Friday’s win for his Dimension Data team-mate Steve Cummings.

“It wasn’t really planned. I thought I’d give it a try in the downhill as the few tries on the climb didn’t work out”, said Sky leader Froome.

Froome’s bravery earned him the race lead, and will wear the yellow jersey heading into Sunday’s gruelling Stage Nine.

Froome leads Adam Yates and Joaquim Rodriguez by 16 seconds overall, according to provisional results.

“I managed to give it everything to the top of the Aspin and I knew the race had really finished before I got to there. Tomorrow, it will be too hard with all the climbs, but I’m happy I spent an extra day in the yellow jersey”.

On the attack in the Tour de France, the British rider was suddenly performing a somersault in midair after an inflatable arch marking the final kilometer collapsed and hit him during a weird finale to Friday’s seventh stage.

American Tejay Van Garderen will be one of the riders who will try to stay with Quintana and Froome.

“They tried to put me in the best position at the foot of the climb”, said Pinot, who enjoyed a strong start to the season crowned by a time trial title at the French national championships last month.

Yates, who insists he is not a GC contender, was also there to strengthen his hold on the white jersey he took on Friday in spite of his weird collision with the flamme rouge banner as it collapsed near the finish line in Lac de Payolle.

“Everyone says we’re predictable so we said this year let’s be unpredictable and make people guess what we’re going to do”. “I’m going to have to take it as it comes”.

Van Avermaet began the day nearly six minutes clear in yellow, but the Classics specialist was no match for the Col du Tourmalet and was dropped on the famed hors categorie climb mid-way through this challenging 184km stage from Pau, coming home nearly 26 minutes down.

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) had led the way over the summit as part of a small break alongside Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) and Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep), leading by more than two minutes, but that advantage was whittled down on the category two Hourquette d’Ancizan and they were caught on the category one Col de Val Louron-Azet.

Thanks to the hard work of his teammates at the front of the peloton in the four major climbs of the day, Froome arrived in ideal condition at Peyresourde.

Former Tour victor Alberto Contador’s struggles continued and the Spaniard lost 1:41 to Froome, dropping to 20th overall, 3:12 back.

Movistar contender Quintana and Alejandro Valverde will test the efficiency and power of Team Sky in which Froome will ride along his lieutenants to bring him into a flawless attack few kilometers to the finish. Froome maintained his new descending style and distanced himself even against Alejandro Valverde, who is known to be a descender. Sometimes in the wrong team, with a general classification rider, you don’t get the chances.

“There are a couple of reasons, I think”, he said.