Peter Kennaugh claimed arguably the biggest win of his career so far with a brilliant stage victory at the Criterium du Dauphine on Saturday afternoon.

The Team Sky rider led a British - and Isle of Man - one-two, with Onchan resident and former team-mate Ben Swift crossing the line second.

The win came on the queen stage of the prestigious Dauphine, which is a precursor to the second of this year’s Grand Tours, the Tour de France which kicks off at the beginning of July.

As such, Kennaugh’s result could well put him in strong contention for a place in Team Sky’s squad in Le Tour, in which he could place a key role in helping Chris Froome attempt to win a third maillot jaune (yellow jersey).

Saturday’s stage was a 167.5-kilometre affair from Aoste in southeastern France to Alpe d’Huez and was all the more impressive given the world-class field competing in the race.

Kennaugh and Swift managed to get themselves in a six-man break late in the day and then the local duo attacked in the last 10km to pull away from the chasers.

Then, with only 3km remaining, Kennaugh was able to breakaway from his old friend and soloed his way to a fantastic victory, his first win of 2017 and one which is the perfect preparation as the Manxman bids to make it a hat-trick of British National Road Race Championship titles on home soil in two weeks’ time.

More in Tuesday’s Isle of Man Examiner.