Schleck unconcerned by Contador

Andy Schleck remained calm after Tour de France rival Alberto Contador trimmed his yellow jersey advantage on Friday.

Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) holds a 31-second lead over Contador (Astana), who is seeking a third Tour title in four years, after conceding 10 seconds on yesterday's 210.5-kilometre 12th stage from Bourg-de-Peage to Mende.

‘He only gained 10 seconds,’ said Schleck.

‘Even if I lost the yellow jersey, it's okay.

‘I would not really have cared because I am still only aiming to have the yellow jersey in Paris (on 25 July).’

Contador exploded halfway up the fifth and final climb of the day, the 3.1km category two ascent of the Montee Laurent Jalabert, so named after the Frenchman's famous Bastille Day win in 1995.

The Spaniard caught and overtook his Astana team-mate Alexandre Vinokourov, who had accelerated out of the day's break, and was joined by Joaquin Rodriguez.

Rodriguez won in a sprint finish, but Contador clawed back a potentially crucial 10 seconds from Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) as the Tour heads towards the Pyrenees, beginning with today's 196km 13th stage from Rodez to Revel.

Team Sky leader Bradley Wiggins climbed one place in the general classification rankings to 16th overall and now sits seven minutes 39 seconds behind Schleck.

The three-time Olympic champion finished 14th, 31 seconds behind.

Wiggins was earlier delayed by a crash involving team-mate Geraint Thomas, but recovered to finish well and move above Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) overall.

Sky team principal Dave Brailsford was buoyed by Wiggins' ascent of the rankings, even though it was by a solitary place.

He said: ‘From a GC (general classification) perspective, that's quite a good sign going into the Pyrenees, where we can just chip away and try and get into that top 10.’

Earlier, Thor Hushovd reclaimed the points classification leader's green jersey.

Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team) joined Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese) on 161 points by finishing second at the first intermediate sprint but won the second to take a six-point lead in the race for the maillot vert.

Norwegian Hushovd - winner of the 2009 green jersey by 10 points from Mark Cavendish - has 167 points and holds a 35-point lead over Cavendish (HTC-Columbia). HTC-Columbia believe today's stage is winnable.

However, the category three Saint-Ferreol climb is just 7.5km from the finish and Cavendish must be in contention at the summit.