Team Sky's Geraint Thomas has the yellow jersey at the Criterium du Dauphine as Irish rider Dan Martin claimed victory on stage five.
Martin (Team Emirates) held off Thomas after making a late attack on the 2.7km climb to the Valmorel ski resort in France.
Thomas' second place was enough to take over top spot of the general classification standings from teammate Gianni Moscon, while fellow Briton Adam Yates finished third to climb up to sixth overall.
Moscon, who started the day six seconds ahead of his teammates Thomas and Michal Kwiatkowski, fell away after Movistar's Marc Soler made the first attack on the climb to the finish.
Martin, Thomas, Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and Romain Bardet (AG2R) were among those able to respond to the move, before Martin surged clear solo.
Thomas dropped the rest as he tried to pursue Martin, but the Irishman held on to take victory by four seconds and move up to 14th overall, two minutes 26 seconds behind the leader.
The 32-year-old Thomas has an advantage of one minute and nine seconds from BMC Racing's Damiano Caruso and Moscon with two stages left of the event, while Yates is a further nine seconds adrift.
"These four days in the mountains are the hardest four days I would have raced I think in a one-week stage race," Thomas said.
"It's a super hard climbing stage race, even harder on the weekend now. I'll enjoy tomorrow, or I'll try to enjoy it in the jersey and defend it but it's super hard."
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