The French have a word for it: panache, encapsulating the flamboyant attacking charac-teristics of great Tour de France champions.

The problem is that, after a week of attritional racing, it is pragmatism that is more likely to win this year's event.

Except that yesterday, Chris Froome, an expatriate Brit, who spent much of his childhood fishing in the African bush and out-running rogue hippos, unexpectedly took a flamboyant stage win that meant his Team Sky leader Bradley Wiggins had to share the spotlight as he took possession of the Tour leader's yellow jersey for the first time in his career.

Kenyan-born Froome, 27, emphatically won yesterday's near-vertical summit finish to La Planche des Belles Filles. In characteristically blunt style, an exuberant Wiggins described claiming the yellow jersey as "f***ing amazing".

"It went perfectly for us today," Wiggins added. "The boys did a fantastic job. Froome won the stage and is going from strength to strength as a bike rider. This is what we've been working for all year, and it's fair to say I think we've peaked now.

"I'm chuffed for Froomey because he had some misfortune last week but now he's got his stage win and he's going to be an integral part of me winning this race. It's nice when you see the guys who have put it on the line for you all year get their rewards.

"We'll take it day by day now but, as I've said before, you can't chose when you take the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. We'll defend it every day now. Cadel Evans is hot on our heels."

Froome, who with second place overall in last year's Tour of Spain is still Britain's best-ever finisher in one of Europe's three grand tours, said he was "chuffed to bits".

"It wasn't the plan to go for the stage, it was just keeping Brad up there," he said. "But I thought, 'I'm there, I've got the legs, why not give a kick and see what happens?'. We couldn't ask for more. It puts the team in a fantastic position going forward."

After the series of crash-addled opening stages, which left some riders swathed in bandages like Egyptian mummies, Wiggins and defending champion Evans, of Team BMC, are in pole position.

Both riders, touted as the men most likely to win this Tour, expertly dodged the numerous spills that littered the peloton's path as the race zigzagged east towards the Vosges and then, next week, the Alps.

Yesterday, as the riders cramponed their way up the 22% pitches to La Planche des Belles Filles, Wiggins and Evans again played the percentages, effectively keeping their powder dry until the all-important first individual time trial in Arc-et-Senans tomorrow. The way this Tour is progressing, it may be the last man standing who claims the yellow jersey in Paris on July 22.

Pre-race contenders such as Frank Schleck, Thomas Voeckler, Ryder Hesjedal and Robert Gesink have all been derailed by crashes.

The latest casualty, Hesjedal, winner of the Giro d'Italia a month ago, pulled out yesterday morning. He is the third rider from David Millar's Garmin-Sharp team to quit the race through injury.

"We are down to six," Garmin team manager Jonathan Vaughters said. "We just have to soldier on. Ryder was in the form of his life. But he had a massive hematoma on his left hip joint; you have got to be able to move your leg to race a bike."

Hesjedal's loss may yet prove be a big blow to the spectacle of this year's Tour. In Wiggins and Evans, the race has two resilient rouleurs, capable of following most daring mountain attacks, but then making the most of their abilities in the individual time trials.

Neither rider, sheltered constantly by their teams, is renowned as a have-a-go hero.

In the absence of Alberto Contador, currently serving a doping ban, and of Andy Schleck, second overall to Evans last year, through injury, the Tour looks a little, well, dull.

Wiggins is a worthy race leader but, patriotism aside, his reliance on time trialling means that he is hardly an exciting one.

Now at least we can look to Froome to spice things up in the mountain stages, which continue today with a hilly stage to Porrentruy in Switzerland. Wiggins, Evans and Froome will then square up to each other in tomorrow's 41.5km time trial between Arc-et-Senans and Besancon.

Outwardly, Froome appears a devoted team-mate. Certainly at the moment, he is saying all the right things.

But the widely held belief that he could have won last year's Tour Spain if he hadn't been sacrificed for Wiggins during the race may play on his mind if his more high-profile team leader shows any signs of weakness.

Jeremy Whittle is co-author of Racing Through the Dark: the fall and rise of David Millar, published by Orion books (orionbooks.co.uk)' and can be followed on Twitter at @jeremycwhittle