Tour de France leader Frank Schleck retained his yellow jersey after a gruelling mountain stage in the Alps.

Cyril Dessel won the 157km stage from Cuneo in Italy to Jausiers in France, which included a 2,802km climb to the summit of the Col de la Bonnette.

Schleck finished in the same group as two of his main rivals Bernhard Kohl and Cadel Evans but another contender, Denis Menchov, lost France passes constitutional reforms ...
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Britain's David Millar finished 144th, over 30 minutes back.

With Shleck one of several leading riders needing to open up an advantage on Evans before Saturday's time trial - a discipline he excels at - this was expected to be another exciting stage of attack and counter-attack.

But in the end there was little aggression between the men chasing yellow and Schleck, Kohl and Evans came home in the same time as Carlos Sastre and Alejandro Valverde.

And the biggest losers of the day were Menchov, who finished 35 seconds behind Schleck, and Christian Vandevelde, who was another two minutes back.

More follows.

(BBC)

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