Nicolas Roche lost more ground on the yellow jersey in Tuesday's ninth stage of the Tour de France.
The gruelling 204.5km stage from Morzine-Avoriaz to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne saw a change in leader as Cadel Evans surrendered his yellow jersey to Andy Schleck.
Roche finished 25th near the front of a group containing Bradley Wiggins and Carlos Sastre, almost five minutes behind Schleck and race favourite Alberto Contador, who both finished two seconds behind stage winner Sandy Casar.
AG2R rider Roche now sits 17th overall, 7 minutes 44 seconds off race leader Schleck.
So the race for the Tour de France suddenly became a duel as Contador and Schleck distanced themselves from their yellow jersey rivals on the second Alpine stage.
Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) beat Contador (Astana) to the race leader's maillot jaune conceded after Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) imploded on the 97th Tour's first hors categorie (beyond category) climb, the Col de la Madeleine.
Casar (FDJ) won the stage in a sprint finish, but the more significant battle in the race to Paris was taking place between Contador and Schleck, the winner of Sunday's first Alpine stage.
The duo tracked each other on the second half of the 25.5km ascent of the Madeleine and hit the summit two minutes 10 seconds behind the four race leaders.
The rapid ascent saw Schleck and Contador gain time on five riders and set up a sprint finish won by Frenchman Casar from Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse D'Epargne) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese).
Contador and Schleck, the 2009 Tour winner and runner-up, respectively, finished two seconds behind to hand the Team Saxo Bank leader a 21-second overall lead over the Spaniard.
Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) finished 52 seconds behind Casar to move into third place overall, 2mins 45secs behind Schleck.
