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German Simon Geschke has won the first Alpine stage of the Tour de France this year on the 17th stage as Chris Froome maintained his overall lead.
It was a fifth victory for Germans at this year’s Tour after Andre Greipel’s three in sprint finishes and Tony Martin on stage four.
American Andrew Talansky finished the 161km ride from Digne-les-Bains to Pra Loup in second at 32 seconds with Colombian Rigoberto Uran third at 1 minute 01 seconds.
Froome was 18th and crossed the line just behind his nearest challenger Nairo Quintana but their gap remains constant at 3 minutes 10 seconds.
Alberto Contador, who had started the day fifth, crashed on the difficult final descent off the Col d’Allos before the climb to the Pra Loup finish.
He lost 2 minutes 17 seconds to Froome and was overtaken by the Briton’s Sky teammate Geraint Thomas, who is now fourth.
Contador remains fifth as American Tejay Van Garderen, who started the day third, quit the race due to illness with 70km left to ride, having been dropped by the peloton.
World champion Michal Kwiatkowski was another to abandon the race.
Also crashing on the final descent was Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, who was chasing Geschke at the time but ended up fourth at 1 minute 36 seconds.
He was second when crashing but was tentative thereafter and had lost four places by the foot of the descent as remnants of a 28-man breakaway came back at the FDJ leader.
Spaniard Alejandro Valverde is up to third at 4 minutes 09 seconds, although he was distanced by Froome and Quintana in the final 500-metres and lost seven seconds.
Reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali continued his improvement in this race following his Pyrenean disaster.
He’s up to seventh, due to Van Garderen’s abandonment, but closing in on sixth-placed Robert Geesink.
The Sicilian lost 15 seconds to Froome but is now only 25 seconds behind Geesink with fourth placed Thomas at 1 minute 30 seconds.
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