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Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali underlined his superiority at the Tour de France by winning the summit finish at Hautacam to all but wrap up the overall victory.It was a fourth stage victory in the race for the Astana rider, who won in Sheffield, the Vosges and the Alps.

Nibali is seven minutes, 10 seconds clear of Thibaut Pinot, who finished 70 seconds adrift in second to move up to second in the overall standings.

Rafal Majka was third to ensure he will win the King of the Mountains jersey.

It was an impressive display by Nibali, who is on the verge of becoming just the sixth man to win all three Grand Tours – the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.

“It’s fantastic to have won four stages. I didn’t believe I’d do that,” he said.

“There aren’t many stages till the finish now and my lead is consolidated. I’m pretty serene.

“I’ve wanted to leave a footprint in the Pyrenees. I wanted to show that I’m the strongest, I wanted the stage win.”

The Astana rider was paced over the first of the day’s two big mountain climbs, the Col du Tourmalet, by his team-mates before racing clear 8km from the summit finish at Hautacam.

He had one minor scare when he clipped a spectator who was standing in the road attempting to take a “selfie” photo but he managed to stay on his bike and rode over the finish line with his arms outstretched, knowing he had taken another huge step in his quest to win the race.

None of the riders in the leading group were inclined to follow Nibali when he attacked, knowing that they would be unlikely to either catch him or finish sufficiently far enough in front of him to stop him from winning the race.

Pinot, Jean-Christophe Peraud, Alejandro Valverde and Romain Bardet were more interested in watching each other in their battle to finish on the podium in Paris on Sunday.

Spaniard Valverde started the day with a 34-second advantage over Pinot, who is also leading the young rider classification.

However, with Saturday’s 54km individual time trial likely to play a huge part in deciding the podium places, Frenchman Pinot, who is a weaker time trial rider than Valverde, attacked on the ascent of Hautacam and was followed by compatriot Peraud. — BBC Sport