Geraint Thomas reversed the narrative in the Tour de France, leading home the main contenders with a resurgent performance in the first summit finish of the 2019 race on the gravel road to La Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges mountains. It was a show of strength that suggested the defence of the Welshman’s Tour title is very much alive.

After overhauling a late attack from Julian Alaphilippe, the defending champion took back the time he had lost in Monday’s finish in Epernay and leapfrogged his Colombian team mate Egan Bernal in the overall standings by nine seconds to reassert himself in the Team Ineos hierarchy.

Tour de France 2019: Dylan Teuns wins stage six summit finish – live! Read more

Reminded that most pundits had tipped his 22-year-old team-mate to win the stage, Thomas replied: “I don’t listen to tips. I felt pretty good. I thought the steep climbs weren’t my cup of tea. I was expecting others – Nairo Quintana, Egan, Richie Porte, Adam Yates - would jump up there. It was a decent day in the end.

“It is one of those climbs where you have to patient. When Alaphilippe went clear at 800 metres to go, I had the confidence to let him go and ride my own tempo and drive it all the way to the line.”

Ahead of him an exhausted Giulio Ciccone, already a stage winner in this year’s Girod’Italia, took the maillot jaune from Alaphilippe’s shoulders to lead the Tourby six seconds, despite being beaten to the line for the stage win by breakaway companion Dylan Teuns of Belgium.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Clockwise from top left: stage winner Dylan Teuns; Julian Alaphilippe after crossing the finish line; the peloton starts a climb; Italy’s Giulio Ciccone celebrates taking the yellow jersey. Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

Yet the final gruelling 500 metres proved very revealing. While Thomas, Alaphilippe and local hero Thibaut Pinot, widely seen this year as a potential winner rather than a mere contender, powered clear to the finish line, they also opened clear daylight on rivals such as Quintana, Jakob Fuglsang and Mikel Landa, who paid for his earlier attack halfway up the seven kilometre climb.

Pinot, who lives about 15 kilometres from the climb, has already drawn high praise from Ineos sports director Nicolas Portal. “He and his team are impressive,” Portal said. “He’s areal contender for the overall win.”

Further back, it was a bad day at the ‘Bench of the Beautiful Girls’ for several of Thomas and Bernal’s biggest rivals with riders such as Vincenzo Nibali, Porte, Fabio Aru and Romain Bardet, steadily losing touch with their hopes of a high placing in Paris.

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Bardet, who lost a minute to his rivals in Sunday’s team time trial, is now over two minutes behind Thomas. “I was not at the best level today which feels bitter,” the Frenchman said. “I’m still very motivated for this Tour but I have to try to understand what happened and why I was stuck like that.” However, Thomas is separated by only 35 seconds from Adam Yates, with Bernal, Pinot, Michael Woods, Rigoberto Uran, and Fuglsang all sandwiched between them. The fearsome climb, appearing for the fourth time and extended this year by a kilometre, has always been pivotal in past Tours, with the yellow jersey wearer after the stage going onto win in Paris in the 2012, 2014 and 2017 races through Bradley Wiggins,Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome respectively.

Ciccone, winner of the King of the Mountains prize in the 2019, is however unlikely to continue that tradition. “The plan is the same,” the Italian said after the stage. “I’d like to hang onto the yellow jersey but I will work for Richie Porte.”

The 160.5km stage over seven categorised climbs, including the Ballon d’Alsace, the first climb ever used in the Tour, was the first real rendezvous of this year’s race. “It was an interesting stage but I think everybody was a bit cautious because the last section with dirt was really hard and people wanted to go ‘full gas’ there,” Dan Martin said.

“I lost a bit of time on the dirt section but I’m not worried. I think this Tour will be about who has the least bad day and today was definitely not a bad day for me.

Friday’s seventh stage, the longest of the 2019 Tour, returns to flatter terrain as the peloton races from Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saone.”