Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck soaked up a late attack from yellow jersey rival Alberto Contador as the Tour de France moved a step closer to the final two mountain stages Wednesday.
Overnight race leader Thomas Voeckler avoided two late crashes in the hectic finale of the 17th stage, won by Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky, but saw his grip on the yellow jersey loosen.
As Boasson Hagen celebrated his second victory of the race on his debut Voeckler finished 27secs behind a nine-man group which contained the Schleck brothers Andy and Frank as well as Contador and Samuel Sanchez.
Contador’s attack on the Col de Manse outside Gap on Tuesday effectively salvaged a bid that had looked dead and buried after a series of crashes.
On Wednesday the Spaniard went on the attack again after cresting the 6.6 km Cote de Pramartino, only for the Schleck brothers — who lost time to Contador and Evans on stage 16 — to counter. The Schlecks caught Contador on the home straight, their nine-man group coming over the finish 4min 26sec behind Hagen who had soloed across the line alone having attacked his breakaway group before the summit of the last climb.
Europcar leader Voeckler almost crashed twice on the technical descent and eventually finished behind the favourites to see his lead over Australian Cadel Evans drop to 1min 18sec. Frank Schleck is still in third place, at 1:22 with brother Andy fourth at 2:36. Sanchez is fifth at 2:59 while Contador is sixth at 3:15.
