Geraint Thomas hailed his Ineos Grenadiers' team tactics on stage 7 of the Critérium du Dauphiné as perfect after teammate Richie Porte swept into the yellow jersey after finishing second atop La Plagne.
The British squad are now in prime position to seal their sixth Dauphiné victory in 11 years with one stage to go, as Porte enjoys a 17-second general classification lead ahead of Sunday's multi-mountain stage to Les Gets.
Porte, part of a three-pronged attack at the race with Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart, took yellow from Astana-Premier Tech leader Alexey Lutsenko, who now lies second, while Thomas is third at 29 seconds.
"I felt good, and we were in a perfect position with Richie up the road," Thomas said after the stage finish. "All I had to do was follow and force Astana to ride. It was kind of funny behind. It was a bit stop-start. It was quick but it wasn't what I expected.
"A great day, Richie in yellow. Can't complain," he summarised the stage.
Porte had jumped away with 8.5 kilometres to go, kicking off the attacking on the HC climb to the finish. The Australian was joined by Movistar's Enric Mas, who sat on for his leader Miguel Ángel López, and Mark Padun (Bahrain Victorious) and Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), who jumped away in search of the stage win.
While Padun went on to solo to victory, Porte later had a battle with López to resolve as the Colombian attacked several times in the finale but rode away from his rival in the final kilometre to seal yellow.
"I think there's a lot said about us and Jumbo or us and Movistar in the past," Thomas said later. "We just try to race the race but it's everyone, not just one team. We had a good plan.
"Richie went and then it's just keeping the pressure on, keeps going, and force the other guys to ride so we can sit on and yeah, it worked out perfectly."
