An aggressive UAE Team Emirates took on the gruelling Criterium du Dauphine stage to La Rosiere, a similar route the riders will face on the 11th stage of the upcoming Tour de France.

Valerio Conti formed part of the large escape, which survived until the last kilometres, when the Italian worked with Dan Martin to attempt to bridge the gap opened up by Pello Bilbao (Astana) and others.

Bilbao made his move late on during the demanding stage and sprinted over the line in triumph to record his second stage win of the season.

Overall leader Geraint Thomas crossed the line in second, with Martin in third.

The late move by the UAE duo saw the 31-year-old jump up 10 places in the overall classification, with the Irishman now fourth 2 mins 30 secs behind Thomas.

Martin said: “I wanted to take advantage of the good legs that I have, but it truly was a hard day.

“The final was very tactical, maybe that’s because the classification men are a little tired, and we weren’t able to pull in Bilbao like I would’ve wanted.

“Let’s see tomorrow how I am, but I’ll try to do well in the final stage, and my overall classification will benefit as a result.”

The last stage of the Criterium du Dauphine travels 136 kilometres from Moutiers to the summit finish up to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc.