Sky suffered several hits today in the Tour de France's stage to Bagnères-de-Bigorres: Richie Porte slipped from second to 33rd overall and Vasil Kiryienka missed the time cut.
"It was a bit of a war today," Porte told journalists, including Cycling Weekly. "Everybody saw that; it was an amazing stage."
Movistar, Saxo-Tinkoff, Garmin and Belkin ramped up the pace and forced Sky out the back ahead and on the first climb.
Froome remained with the front riders, protected his yellow leader's jersey but lost a GC helper.
Porte started the Tour de France as Sky's plan B after winning Paris-Nice and finishing second while helping Froome win Critérium International and Critérium du Dauphiné.
That plan went out the window today.
The Tasmanian tried to chase, hovered around two to three minutes, and even once sat only one minute behind Froome's group.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"He sat up, though," Brailsford said. "We told him there's no point, sit up."
Brailsford believes Porte's effort yesterday to Ax 3 Domaines' ski station took its toll.
"It was unexpected, not often do we see Richie have a day like that. Whether it's the heat or who knows. Obviously, he went deep and paid for it today," Brailsford added.
"Yesterday we knew that we wanted Chris up the Pailhères, so Richie and Pete [Kennaugh] went deep to do that. To be fair, though, in a group of 30 or 40 riders, you'd expect us to have more than one rider."
Froome was able to fend for himself in the day, which covered five high-mountain passes and 168.5 kilometres, but fortunately finished on a downhill to Bagnères-de-Bigorres.
Kennaugh appears fine. He suffered scrapes from a crash on the Col de Porte-d'Aspet, but continued and finished. Vasil Kiryienka will be missed after he placed outside the stage's time limit.
Porte called it "just a bad day."
"There's still another two weeks to the Tour so I'm looking forward to moving on," Porte added.
"My climbing form is pretty good. I fought along there by myself and I'll be fine... It was a hard day for everyone, everybody and yeah... no stress."
Sky fortunately will be able to use Monday's rest day to recover. Froome looks ahead to the time trial on Wednesday to gain more time.
"People said yesterday that the race was done, which I wish it was, but we know that bike racing is unpredictable," Brailsford added. "We've got the yellow jersey, though, we've got a time trial coming up, we've got a couple of stages where we'll manage and then we'll be back into the mountains."
Listen to the stage nine podcast
Tour de France 2013: Stage reports
Stage nine: Martin wins stage as Froome fights to keep lead
Stage eight: Froome wins Tour mountains stage to take overall lead
Stage seven: Sagan scores first win of 2013 Tour
Stage six: Greipel wins as Impey moves into lead
Stage five: Cavendish wins; Gerrans keeps lead
Stage four: Orica win Tour's team time trial to put Gerrans in yellow
Stage three: Gerrans outpaces Sagan to take win
Stage two: Millar denied yellow as Bakelants takes spoils
Read Cycling Weekly magazine on the day of release wherever you are in the world with our iPad and iPhone edition - International digital edition, UK digital edition. And if you like us, rate us!
Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Founded in 1891, Cycling Weekly and its team of expert journalists brings cyclists in-depth reviews, extensive coverage of both professional and domestic racing, as well as fitness advice and 'brew a cuppa and put your feet up' features. Cycling Weekly serves its audience across a range of platforms, from good old-fashioned print to online journalism, and video.
VanMoof e-bikes back on sale in UK with promise of 'more reliable' models
Amateur cyclist breaks Strava KOMs on Mortirolo and Stelvio, makes plea for pro contract
