Chris Froome found his form in spectacular style on Monte Zoncolan to win his first ever stage of the Giro d’Italia while fellow British rider Simon Yates extended his overall lead.

Froome broke away with four kilometres to go on one of the key climbs of this year’s race and held off Yates, who crossed the line six seconds behind to take the runners-up spot on stage 14.

That gives the man from Bury a lead of one minute and 24 seconds over defending champion Tom Dumoulin, but the Dutchman will consider that something of a moral victory given his superior time-trialling ability.

Froome is still 3mins 10secs behind in fifth place but has shown he is back and potentially still in with a chance of winning the race with more climbs to come and Tuesday’s time trial.

The four-time Tour de France champion said on Eurosport: “It’s a really, really special feeling winning on top of this mountain, such a monumental climb for the race, and such a good feeling especially after a really hard start to the race for me and the team.

“The team have supported me so well, to get the stage really means a lot. Even right to the line, Simon was right behind me. I didn’t know if he was going to catch me. It was such a relief to get into that final 100 metres knowing I was going to win the stage.”

Froome knows the odds are firmly stacked against him becoming only the seventh man to complete the hat-trick of grand tours but he is not giving up hope.

The 32-year-old said: “I haven’t quite been feeling myself but hopefully I can come back from it and keep racing as hard as I can to the finish.

“It’s still over three minutes and Simon’s in great form, Tom isn’t far off either, the time trial still to come. It’s still all to race for. We’re motivated and today’s obviously going to keep the morale up for us. We’ve seen in the Giro d’Italia before the jersey can change in the last few days. We’ve got to keep hoping.”

The big names all bided their time until the 10 kilometre climb of Zoncolan, which has an average gradient of 11.9 per cent.

Yates was riding in pink for the eighth day, a record for a British rider, and looked comfortable until Froome attacked.

No one could go with the Tour de France and Vuelta winner but Yates did not allow Froome to get away and worked hard to close the gap. At one stage it looked as though he would catch his countryman but Froome had just enough left.

Simon Yates was all smiles at the finish as well as the start of the 14th stage of the Giro d'Italia
Simon Yates was all smiles at the finish as well as the start of the 14th stage of the Giro d’Italia (Daniel Dal Zennaro/AP)

Domenico Pozzovivo was the best of the rest and moved up to third place overall, with Dumoulin crossing the line in a very creditable fifth, only 31 seconds behind Yates.

The Maglia Rosa was content with his efforts, saying: “It was extremely difficult. Chris went at the perfect moment, on a really step section. I couldn’t match him at the time. I tried to get him at the end but I just couldn’t get there.

“He did a great ride but I’m really happy with what I did. Everybody was expecting (Dumoulin) to lose big chunks of time but it was a really good climb for him. Hopefully we’ll try and test him tomorrow again.”