Movistar's Enric Mas held on to eighth place overall in stage 17 of the Tour de France, which finished Wednesday in the Col de la Rose.

The Spanish climber is looking forward to making his mark on Thursday's 18th stage, the final day of racing in the Alps, where Wednesday's stage winner Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) will be joined by race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) and second place Tadej Pogacar ( UAE Team Emirates) proved that they are "not invincible," he said.

Mass finished in the top 10 for the first time in this year's Tour with a summit finish at Puy Marie on stage 13 last week. He then took fifth place on Sunday's stage 15 finish at Grand Colombier, moving him up to eighth overall.

"I won't deny that I'm happy with my performance, but I was feeling good until the last 3km and would have liked to finish a little closer to the top contenders," Mas said.

Mass finished sixth in the Col de la Rose on stage 17, one place behind Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) in the overall.

Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo Visma), in ninth place, is more than three minutes behind and does not appear to be much of a threat, but the Dutchman is likely to lose considerable time in the individual time trial to La Planche de Belle Fille on Saturday and is one of the favorites to win the stage He will start as a

"The altitude may have had an effect, but the competitors were just stronger," Mas admitted of the 2,302-meter-high Col de la Rose.

"The pace throughout the entire Tour (always on full gas) pays off with finishes like this. It was a grueling race and when you get to the third week and the wear and tear, that's what makes such a difference."

"We finished one by one and everyone was dead tired. For us, as a team, we made steady progress throughout the race. We have been preparing for this stage of the Tour with the goal of reaching the best possible conditions.

"Three or four weeks ago in the Dauphiné, I never expected to be eighth overall or anywhere near the top five," said Mass, who finished 20th overall in last month's Tour prep race.

"We'll keep pushing. And Lopez proved that Slovenians are not invincible," the 25-year-old said, looking ahead to Thursday's stage 18, noting that Lopez beat Slovenians Roglic and Pogacar on Wednesday.

"Tomorrow will be another important day.

Meanwhile, Movistar teammate Alejandro Valverde finished 12th on the stage to the Col de la Rose, his first top 10 finish of the competition.

The 40-year-old Valverde could tie his ninth place overall from last year's Tour, but is unlikely to reach his best Tour finish of third at the 2015 event.

Despite losing time, the Movistar team managed to maintain its lead in the team standings on Wednesday, 30 minutes ahead of the Jumbo-Visma team led by Roglic.