As the Tour de France enters its final week, the 2,500-mile race is coming down to nerves and seconds, which makes Daniel Martin’s current strategy of some interest. Had he not been caught up in the crash which did for Richie Porte en route to Chambéry and lost 1min 15sec, the Irishman would have been an immediate threat to Chris Froome’s yellow jersey; instead he is engaged in his own personal pursuit race, gaining time when the tiniest opening beckons.

In the closing kilometres to this town on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim trail, Martin was the only one of the magic circle immediately behind Froome to gain the slightest amount of time, once Romain Bardet’s attempt to put the race leader under pressure had been snuffed out.

Froome’s response to his broken spoke amounted to a major show of strength from the Sky leader, who managed to close a 50-second gap even as five of Bardet’s AG2R team mates were piling on the pressure at the front. Moreover, none of the riders breathing down Froome’s neck in the overall standings had sufficient strength to attack before the yellow jersey regained contact.

Tour de France 2017: Mollema wins stage 15 as Froome retains yellow jersey – as it happened Read more

On Friday’s Bastille Day to Foix, Martin made a late attack to gain nine seconds; here, he zipped out of the group containing Froome and the other favourites on a small rise some 10 kilometres from the finish. As he made his move, the yellow jersey and Bardet’s AG2R team-mates both looked at each other, giving him the margin he needed. “I saw everybody was on the limit, and after the downhill, everybody kind of stalled,” he said afterwards.

The Col de Peyra Taillade reared up for an intimidating five miles, rising from the twisting gorge of the river Allier via hairpins through high meadows and dead straight ramps at 14% where some of the riders in the lead group were reduced to zig-zagging to maintain momentum. “Welcome to hell,” said a placard on the roadside on the climb; the principal victim was Nairo Quintana, who lost contact early on and was unable to hold Froome for more than a few metres when he and his team-mate Mikel Nieve came past in pursuit of the group.

With Mikel Landa dropping back from the Bardet group to help him in the final metres before he regained contact, Froome caught up with Bardet and Aru and company a couple of kilometres from the top of the Peyra Taillade and immediately had to respond to an attack from the Frenchman, who was racing on his home roads in front of his home crowd.

Through high hayfields where the balers were bustling, in scenery reminiscent of Bodmin Moor but at more than 2,500 feet, the 189 kilometres were something of a Romain Bardet love-in. The AG2R leader’s home town of Brioude is about an hour’s drive to the north of the finish, and the banners were multifarious and multicoloured, but with a single theme: France expects its current favourite son to wear the yellow jersey some time soon, but Bardet is biding his time. Or so he says, and so the nation hopes.

With only seconds in the overall standings, the stage also came down to “two times nothing” as the French put it, with the seasoned Dutchman Bauke Mollema attacking the remains of a massive breakaway group just over the top of the ascent of Peyra Taillade and somehow hanging on to the finish to give some relief to the Trek-Segafredo team, whose leader Alberto Contador is looking past his sell-by date and is lurking in ninth place overall.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chris Froome rides ahead of Spain’s Mikel Landa during stage 15 of the Tour de France. Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images

Much of the stage ran over roads known as the route of the Beast after a massive wolf which struck fear into locals in the 18th century; now, grinding a massive gear, Mollema was “beasting” as the cycling slang has it. He had to ride some 30km on his own – “the hardest of his life,” he said afterwards – and his chances looked minimal when a strong chasing quartet of Diego Ulissi, Warren Barguil, Tony Gallopin and Primoz Roglic closed to within 100 metres on a short, steep rise just 5km from the finish. This was a finale worthy of a one-day Classic, and not surprisingly Mollema shines in these as well, having won last year’s Clasica de San Sebastian.

The 30-year-old from Groningen is a regular finisher in the top 10 of the Tour, but usually has at least one off-day in the final week. He has already finished seventh in the Giro d’Italia, and in theory was here to back up Contador’s bid for the overall. With the Spaniard struggling apart from a strong ride on the stage to Foix, Trek have lowered their sights to getting in breakaways and targeting stage wins.

If Bardet stalled a little, the same could not be said of France’s other current hero, Warren Barguil, who was again at the head of affairs mopping up points towards the King of the Mountains jersey. Meanwhile his team-mate, and room-mate, Michael Matthews again ate into Marcel Kittel’s lead in the green points jersey standings, infiltrating the 28-man lead group that dominated the stage, and taking maximum points in the intermediate sprint.

The Australian even sprinted for 16th place, although points at the finish go down only to 15th but then, as Kittel said, this fight could last as far as the Champs-Élysées next Sunday. As for the overall, Froome is already talking about Saturday’s time trial in Marseille.