His form has looked good, but he should rue his naïve decision to collect a water bottle on the last climb of stage eight just as Froome was making what turned out to be a stage-winning acceleration.
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Chris Froome, the defending champion was six minutes behind Dumoulin in the race, but finished alongside compatriot Adam yates, who remains in the second place on the general classification table.
The worst to fare was Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), the 2007 and 2009 Tour champion who abandoned with 100 kilometers to go despite showing signs that he might have recovered from his injuries in crashes on stages one and two by getting into an early break.
The Spaniard Contador had injured his entire right side after crashing on the first two stages while he also had a virus on Sunday morning.
Colombian Nairo Quintana, Froome’s main rival, finished 13th on the stage and now sits 23 seconds further back. Among the pre-race favorites, BMC’s Tejay van Garderen has already lost 1:01 to Froome, and Astana’s Fabio Aru trails by 1:23.
The 31-year-old won a similar stage that ended atop the “Beast of Provence” in 2013, catching Quintana before finishing 29 seconds ahead of the Movistar rider.
He admitted he was delighted with how the first part of the race had gone.
Yates is 16sec back from Froome with Martin third at 19sec and Quintana fourth at 23sec.
He added: “Several times before the Tour, I said this would be the biggest battle of my career and it’s definitely the case”.
But about 5km from the top of the Hors Categorie summit finish, Sky’s Sergio Henao attacked.
As I’ve said all week since losing time to a flat on stage two, the thinking behind my moves is not rocket science.
“I’ve got more maturity”. Mountain domestiques frequently attack to soften a leading group of riders, ultimately setting up their captains for a coup de grâce later on.
“I guess people just don’t quite understand how it is when you’re on the limit – it’s just not always possible to keep attacking”.
“The change for me is that we won’t have to chase his attacks 100 kilometres before the finish”. You could see Luke Durbridge and Daryl Impey today, they gave me their everything. Team Sky had controlled the pace but when they had all been dropped and only Henao and Froome were left, Henao jumped.
A hugely gifted breakaway specialist, Cummings’ lone victory at Lac de Payolle on Friday came after he rode solo up the first major mountain climb of the Tour, fending off rivals as tough as Vincenzo Nibali, one of the most formidable stage racers in the modern peloton.
“It really was just a bit of a gamble”, Froome.
Overall, Froome, who made a few brief attacks in the finale, could not distance himself from last year’s runner-up Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who rode conservatively, keeping his cards close to his chest.
‘We’ll take it day by day, ‘ he said.
“When they went, Froomey responded straightaway and behind him there was a gap, so I got up to him”, Thomas said.
There is just one team controlling the race this year, and it’s Froome’s Team Sky.
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British success might not directly breed more of the same on the Tour, but Cavendish said it was certainly something all the riders shared in.
