Chris Froome finished a fine third on stage 20 at the Tour de France to all but certify overall victory in the 100th edition of the French Grand Tour.

The Team Sky Brit looked comfortable on the final hors-categorie summit finish to stick with his podium rivals until the final metres - the yellow jersey safe on his back with a cushion of five minutes and three seconds.

All Froome and his Sky teammates have to do is ride safely onto the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Sunday night to secure back-to-back Tour victories for Team Sky.

After the stage Froome acknowledged: "I can't quite believe I'm sitting here in this position. This really is amazing. I'm a bit lost for words. We still have to roll into Paris tomorrow but this is it, this is the GC side of it pretty much sorted out and to finish it off like this is really special,” Froome told French tv immediately after the stage.

When asked what went through his mind during the final kilometres of the stage, Froome replied that the reality of actually winning the Tour de France began to dawn on him.

"It was quite hard to stay on top of it once I got to about 3km to go and it sunk in that this is it, I've accomplished what I needed to. I was just following the wheels and just overwhelmed by the feeling of 'OK this is it now, I'm safe and I've got pretty much to the finish.'"