Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) moved up two places from sixth to fourth in the overall standings despite losing the battle for the yellow jersey on Wednesday's 17th stage, the "queen stage" of the Tour de France.

Porte, 35, finished fifth in the summit finish of the Col de la Rose, 1:01 behind stage winner Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), but dropped a number of his main GC rivals, dropping Adam Yates (Mitchelton Scott) and Rigoberto Uran ( EF Pro Cycling) over both of his rivals. In what turned out to be a brutally tough race, Porte had to keep pace with the main contenders and race his own race when the final attack came just 3km from the finish. Mads Pedersen and Kenny Elissonde were outstanding.

"Honestly, there are some absolutely brutal climbs in cycling, like the Zoncolan, but today was a final with a lot of elevation gain ...... I could barely pedal my bike, and with 500 meters to go I couldn't stand up," Porte said. "Everyone went super deep. It was a hard day, but I am happy with the result. Tomorrow will be another hard day.

"When I reconfirmed this stage with (teammate) Bauke Mollema in July, we knew it would be the queen stage of the Tour. To come through this stage and come back in a better position than I was at the start makes me happy." [Honestly, it was a fistfight. It was a fistfight, to be honest.

"Sepp Kuss [Jumbo Visma] was there for Primo Roglic, but at the end of the day, there was nothing my teammate could do... I'm happy to have moved up to fourth in GC."

Porte is 1:39 behind Lopez and still far from the podium. Had he not lost more than a minute in the crosswind on stage 7, he would have been even closer to Lopez's current third place. Another tough day in the mountains is coming up on stage 18, and Trek riders continue to focus on GC.

"We'll see how things go tomorrow, get through Friday, and hopefully do well in the time trial," he said.