The QuickStep rider formed part of the day’s main breakaway group on the 159 kilometres from Annecy to Le Grand-Bornand, before jumping clear on the steepest slopes of the Col du Romme 35 kilometres from the line.

Ireland’s Dan Martin led home the group of race favourites to earn himself a solid seventh place, sending a strong message to his rivals and showing that his Tour is far from over, despite his heavy fall last weekend.

Today was the day the real race started. Obviously, I’m still feeling the affects of my crash a bit, but the legs are intact and that’s the main thing,” said Martin, who is still nursing wounds he incurred after crashing and losing time on stage 8.

However, the Team UAE man is still aiming for a place on the podium when the race arrives in Paris.

“We’re still in the fight for the podium. Even after the crash, the team still believes in me 100%, so I have to give it everything. It’s nice to get the first mountain stage out of the way. I’m pretty happy with that. It was a block headwind on the final climb. Every bone in my body said don’t attack, but I knew if guys were five or 10 seconds off the back, by the time we reach the bottom it could be one minute, so I pushed on. The next two days are going to be brutal and I’ll see how my legs are, but I expect a lot more attacks tomorrow.”

Martin now moves up to 17th place in the General Classification, five minutes and five seconds behind race leader Greg Van Avermaet .

A major talking point of the stage was the brave display by race leader Van Avermaet. The yellow jersey attacked in the same group as Alaphilippe and, though he lost contact in the closing stages, he managed to extend his overall race lead. The Belgian’s advantage now stands at two minutes and 22 seconds, though he admitted he is likely to pay for his efforts in the coming days.

I didn’t expect to keep the jersey today. When I attacked I looked back to see if Team Sky would react and when I saw that they were not chasing I went for it. Today was the last day; tomorrow is another hard mountain stage and I think my time in yellow will be over.

Chris Froome had dramas of his own, suffering a puncture on the gravel section at the top of the Montee du plateau des Glieres.

“It was a little bit wacky races going on there,” said the four-time Tour winner. “I had a puncture on the first section, got a spare wheel from a team-mate (Jonathan Castroviejo) only to find out that was flat as well, so it was a little bit of a comedy of errors going on there.”

Martin will be in the hunt for his second stage win today on stage 11 from Albertville to La Rosière.

The shortest stage in the Alps, at just 108km, it is likely the yellow jersey will change shoulders, with Geraint Thomas (Sky) the likely recipient.

The Welshman is currently sitting in second place overall and will be seen as a genuine challenger to his teammate Froome in the overall race for the yellow jersey.