Simon Yates outshines Froome to claim overall lead in Switzerland

The 24-year-old Bury rider attacked with 15 kilometres left of the mountainous 163.5km stage from Domdidier to Leysin, and rode clear alongside BMC's Richie Porte.

The pair came to the line together, but Orica-Scott's Yates timed his move to fire past the Australian and take the win while others - notably Team Sky's Chris Froome - struggled behind.

The victory leaves Yates 19 seconds clear of Porte overall going into Sunday's final stage - a 17.88km time trial around Lausanne.

"On the final climb I knew Richie was coming across, so I didn't want to keep pushing as I knew that when he caught me I would be empty, so I took a bit easy and waited for him to get to me," Yates said.

"I managed to get him in front into the final kilometre and I think that really saved me as the wind was quite strong in the finish. I am just really happy that I was able to come around him and take the victory."

Froome, a two-time winner of this race, could not keep up on the first-category final climb of the day, and he finished 75 seconds down on Yates, dropping him back to a lowly 32nd place in the general classification.

Team Sky's day had already been overshadowed following an incident at the end of Friday's stage three, which had been won by their Italian sprinter Elia Viviani.

Italian rider Gianni Moscon is facing disciplinary action from the team after it emerged he used racially abusive language towards FDJ's Kevin Reza at the end of the stage.

Sky chose not to withdraw Moscon from the race following discussions with FDJ.

Moscon and Sky sporting director Nico Portal visited the FDJ team bus where Moscon apologised to Reza and his team-mates, an apology which has been accepted.

However, Sky do not consider the matter closed and will consider what action to take after establishing all of the facts of the case.