Tour de France stage five: Chris Froome takes yellow jersey

Froome crossed the line in third place ahead of BMC's Richie Porte, but with Thomas down in 10th place the Welshman surrendered the race lead he took in Saturday's opening time trial in Dusseldorf.

Three-time Tour winner Froome now leads by 12 seconds from Thomas, with Aru up to third, 14 seconds back, after the Italian national champion won his first career Tour de France stage.

Froome said: "I remember the first time I was in yellow in 2013. It was a bit of an overwhelming experience to be honest, but I think I've spent enough days in yellow now to get used to that.

"I know what I'm up against. This is going to be the hardest-fought battle in terms of the general classification and I know my rivals are right up there."

Froome added: "The goal now is for us to keep the jersey all the way to Paris. 

"It's not going to be easy." 

The 160.5 kilometre stage from Vittel was billed as the one which would bring true shape to the fight for yellow as the first of only three summit finishes in this Tour, and it delivered.

This is only the third time the Tour has visited La Planche des Belles Filles - scene of Froome's first career Tour stage win in 2012.

But it is worth noting that on both previous occasions the man wearing yellow at the end of the day - Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Vincenzo Nibali in 2014 - was wearing it in Paris at the end of the race.

The strength of Aru's attack will certainly have caught the attention of his fellow contenders as the 27-year-old burst clear with 2.4km left and won by 16 seconds from Martin, with Froome leading Porte over the line another four seconds back

Martin said: "It was a cat and mouse game when Fabio went. We kind of looked at each other. He was super strong so congratulations to him. I knew I just had to wait for a sprint and if Fabio was close enough I'll be able to catch him but in the end it didn't work out."

Romain Bardet, France's great hope for a home win, was fifth on the day, just ahead of Britain's Simon Yates and former Team Sky man Rigoberto Uran and two-time Tour winner Alberto Contador.

But Nairo Quintana could only manage ninth place, 34 seconds behind Aru, as his hopes of contending suffered another blow.

Martin is up to fourth place overall, 25 seconds back. The Quick-Step Floors man is 14 seconds ahead of Porte and 18 ahead of Orica-Scott's Simon Yates, who moves up to sixth overall and takes over in the white jersey as the best young rider - a category won by his twin brother Adam 12 months ago.

Quintana is already in trouble, some 54 seconds behind Froome after five stages.

With Aru now only 14 seconds off yellow, the Italian will have seized leadership of the Astana team as Jakob Fuglsang, billed as a co-captain, faded badly on the imposing gradients late on this relatively short but extremely sharp climb.

Nobody responded when Aru launched his move just before the gradients - which average 8.5% over the course of the 5.9km climb - began to ease off slightly, and the Italian was quickly out of reach.

"I made a little bit of a mistake at the final by giving Aru that much space to go," Froome said. 

"But with it being flat on the final kick, no-one wanted to be left pulling on that final point."

The others put in little digs at one another but it was not until the final few hundred metres, where the road ramped up to 20 per cent, that Martin burst clear and Froome rounded Porte to claim the last of the bonus seconds on offer.

Final leading positions after Stage 5 (Vittel - La Planche des Belles Filles - 160.5km): 1 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 3hrs 44mins 6secs, 2 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors at 16secs, 3 Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky at 20secs, 4 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team, 5 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at 24secs, 6 Simon Yates (Gbr) Orica-Scott at 26secs, 7 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac, 8 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo at same time, 9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team at 34secs, 10 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky at 40secs, 11 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates, 12 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe at same time, 13 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team at 1min 5secs, 14 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo at 1min 7secs, 15 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky, 16 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team at same time, 17 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at 1min 10secs, 18 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Dimension Data at same time, 19 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty - Groupe Gobert at 1min 13secs

Selected others: 127 Scott Thwaites (Gbr) Dimension Data at 11mins 58secs, 167 Stephen Cummings (Gbr) Dimension Data at 15mins 47secs, 172 Ben Swift (Gbr) UAE Team Emirates at 16mins 16secs, 173 Luke Rowe (Gbr) Team Sky at 16mins 16secs, 177 Daniel Mclay (Gbr) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro at 19mins 16secs

General Classification after Stage 5: 1 Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky 18hrs 38mins 59secs, 2 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky at 12secs, 3 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team at 14secs, 4 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors at 25secs, 5 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team at 39secs, 6 Simon Yates (Gbr) Orica-Scott at 43secs, 7 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at 47secs, 8 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo at 52secs, 9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team at 54secs, 10 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe at 1min 1secs, 11 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac at same time, 12 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at 1min 7secs, 13 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates at 1min 24secs, 14 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe at 1min 29secs, 15 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team at 1min 33secs, 16 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky at 1min 47secs, 17 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal at 1min 51secs, 18 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky at 1min 56secs, 19 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac at 1min 57secs

Selected others: 21 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team at 2mins 14secs, 134 Ben Swift (Gbr) UAE Team Emirates at 18mins 43secs, 140 Scott Thwaites (Gbr) Dimension Data at 19mins 10secs, 161 Daniel Mclay (Gbr) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro at 22mins 50secs, 169 Stephen Cummings (Gbr) Dimension Data at 23mins 54secs, 191 Luke Rowe (Gbr) Team Sky at 39mins 21secs