Tour De France 2016 Stage Eight

Chris Froome launched a spectacular attack down the final descent to win stage eight and take the leader's yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

Team Sky rider and defending champion Froome denied fellow Briton Adam Yates the overall race lead but he retains the young riders' white jersey.

British riders have now won five of the first eight stages of the Tour.

They also hold three of the four jerseys after Mark Cavendish retained the green points jersey.

The Team Dimension Data rider, who has won three stages in this Tour, finished 39 minutes behind Froome on a punishing second day in the Pyrenees, which included four mountains and temperatures approaching 30C.

Previous race leader Greg van Avermaet, who is not a climber, lost almost 25 minutes to tumble well down the classification.

Froome catches rivals asleep with unexpected attack

Team Sky set up the win by cranking up the pace during the last climb of the 183km stage from Pau to Bagneres-de-Luchon, but what came next was unexpected.

Defending champion Froome, a renowned climber, was first over the 1,569m summit, and then immediately attacked on the 17km descent to the finish, catching his rivals, including Movistar's Nairo Quintana, asleep.

Quintana waited for team-mate Alejandro Valverde to take up the chase and by the time the Spaniard went to the front of the group, Froome had flown.

The 2013 and 2015 winner tucked onto his crossbar and pedalled furiously to establish a winning margin, later saying he had prepared his bike for the last downhill of the day.

Froome told ITV4: "It definitely wasn't planned, I went to the top and thought 'why not'?

"I knew the descent was long and fast, and I had some big gears on, so it was in the back of my mind. I heard on the radio I had a gap so I just went for it to the finish. I spent a lot of energy there but everyone pedalled fast on the descent.

"We do mess round in training racing each other downhill sometimes, so that came in handy, but thanks to my team - they rode so hard all day and the peloton was on the limit."

Stage eight result

1. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 4:57:33"
2. Daniel Martin (Ireland / Etixx - Quick-Step) +13"
3. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain / Katusha)
4. Romain Bardet (France / AG2R)
5. Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic / Tinkoff)
6. Fabio Aru (Italy / Astana) 
7. Adam Yates (Britain / Orica)
8. Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar)
9. Bauke Mollema (Netherlands / Trek)
10. Richie Porte (Australia / BMC Racing)

General classification after stage eight:

1. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 39:13:04"
2. Adam Yates (Britain / Orica) +16"
3. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain / Katusha)
4. Daniel Martin (Ireland / Etixx - Quick-Step) +17"
5. Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +19"
6. Nairo Quintana (Colombia / Movistar) +23"
7. Fabio Aru (Italy / Astana)
8. Tejay van Garderen (U.S. / BMC Racing)
9. Romain Bardet (France / AG2R)
10. Bauke Mollema (Netherlands / Trek)