Riblon wins in Pyrenees

Andy Schleck, the Luxembourg rider who finished runner-up to Alberto Contador last year, retained his 31-second overall advantage over the Spaniard following the 184.5 kilometre ride from Revel.

They crossed the second of three mountain top finishes at this year's Tour in a five-man group that was 14 seconds behind Denis Menchov and Samuel Sanchez, third and fourth overall respectively, after playing cat and mouse with each other in the final stages of the 7.8km climb to the finish.

Riblon, who was part of an early nine-man escape group, secured France's fourth stage win in this year's race.

The AG2R rider along with Britain's Geraint Thomas (Sky), David Zabriskie (Garmin), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Stephane Auge and Amael Moinard (Cofidis), Benoît Vaugrenard (FDJ), Jurgen van de Walle (Quick Step) and Pierre Rolland (Bbox) formed an early attack and opened up a 10 minute lead over the peloton.

But the nine leaders began the 15.5km ascent of the Port de Pailheres with an advantage of just four minutes as Contador's Astana team set a fierce pace.

Riblon dropped all his breakaway rivals and still had a lead of 2:45 over a 38-man peloton at the 2001 metres summit, the second highest paved pass in the French Pyrenees, with 29km remaining.

He maintained that lead on the descent down to Ax-les-Thermes and then held off the main overall challengers on the finishing climb to Ax-3-Domaines, the ski resort on the other side of the valley.

Ax 3 Domaines is the kind of steep, brutal Pyrenean terrain that Contador loves and brutal turns of pace from his team-mates Daniel Navarro and then Alexander Vinokourov soon whittled down the main bunch to an elite group of 10 with 6km to the summit.

2008 champion Carlos Sastre, who won in Ax 3 Domaines in 2003, had attempted a counter-attack on the Port de Pailheres but was caught and passed as the 27-year-old Astana rider launched a series of attacks in the final 4km.

But he and Schleck were more concerned with each other when Russia's Menchov went clear with 2km remaining, allowing the Rabobank rider and Euskatel's Sanchez to pick up a few precious seconds on the first of four Pyrenean stages in five days.

Spain's Sanchez is third on GC at 2:31 with Menchov 13 seconds behind. Jurgen Van Den Broeck and Robert Gesink, who came home in the Schleck-Contador group, complete the top six in the overall standings.

Gesink jumps above Levi Leipheimer, who lost 45 seconds on the final climb, and the American has Joaquin Rodriguez close behind. The Katusha rider also finishing in the same group as the yellow jersey.

Source: eurosport.co.uk