Lots of hand gestures and not a pat in the back in sight; Mikel Landa and Nicolas Portal after Landa left Chris Froome behind.

Video: Landa rows with Team Sky staff over Froome

Mikel Landa was recorded by the TV cameras apparently being admonished by Team Sky director Nicolas Portal for leaving Chris Froome on the summit finish today.

Landa did fantastic work on the front of the select group up the final climb at Tour de France stage 12.

But while the nine-man group was all together with just 300 metres remaining, the finish was so tough the group would split.

Froome would trail in 7^th some 22 seconds down on stage winner Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale).

Landa on the other hand would finish 4^th on the stage, just 5 seconds down.

With Fabio Aru 3^rd on the day and 20 seconds ahead of Froome, he took the race lead.

The incident has inevitably been compared to the, much more serious, spat between Froome and Bradley Wiggins on the same mountain in the 2012 Tour.

Wiggins had the yellow jersey when team mate Froome attacked and was told to wait. He did so and Wiggins would win the Tour.

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Aqui el momento de explicaciones pic.twitter.com/oTBal01IsV

— Asterisco TdF 2017 (@CaritasVoeckler) July 13, 2017

The loss of the jersey today is by no means a disaster for Froome. He only trails Aru by 6 seconds. And he is still red hot favourite to win the race.

But the fact Landa appeared to press on while Froome floundered at the last was unusual for Team Sky.

And when he said he may have won the stage, or certainly competed for the victory, had he been free to do so, the team had a controversy on its hands.

Landa wanted to go for stage win

“I was going really well, and if I’d have been going for the stage win maybe I’d have been further forward," Landa said afterwards.

"I don’t know about winning it, but I could have contested it,” adding he was pacing Froome and didn’t realise he’d been dropped.

Portal dismissed any idea of a row within the team. But he a Landa posed for a humorous photo, below, that they later shared on social media.

They clearly felt they had to diffuse a tricky moment when the TV images were broadcast.

post-race meeting done @TeamSky pic.twitter.com/ty21z6KsM4

— Landa Meana (@MikelLandaMeana) July 13, 2017