The day’s breakaway was established by Daniel Teklehaimanot after the opening 10 kilometres of the 167km hilly route, with the Eritrean joined by the French duo Alexis Gougeard and Lilian Calmejane, New Zealand’s Jack Bauer and Poland’s Bartosz Huzarski.

Their long distance attack saw them build a five minute advantage over the peloton at the 100km mark, but the gap began to drop after Etixx-Quick Step moved to the front of the chasing group.

As their advantage deteriorated Huzarski and Gougeard accelerated clear of their companions in the final 20km and were eventually joined by Belgium’s Serge Pauwels, as well as Tony Gallopin and Fabrice Jeandesbosz of France.

They remained in the lead until the final kilometre of the stage with Spain’s Dani Moreno making the juncture to the group, before his Movistar team-mate Herrada powered clear to take in the win in a time of 4hr, 13min and 43sec.

“I tried to keep as much strength as I could for the finale,” said Herrada.

“I knew how it would be at the end so I didn't want to waste any energy to be at 100 per cent for the sprint.

“We came across to the breakaway guys 500 metres before the line, Dani Moreno attacked, I concluded.

“I'm very happy, the finale suited me well.”

Initially race leader Alberto Contador had appeared to lose time on his closest rivals, but the Spaniard was eventually given the same finishing time as Australia’s Richie Porte and Britain’s Chris Froome.

Porte remains just six seconds adrift of the race leader, with Froome still lies 15 seconds down as he seeks to defend his title at the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour race.

The third stage of the race will take place tomorrow with a flat 182km route from Boën-sur-Lignon to Tournon-sur-Rhône.