Leopold König showed a rare sign of weakness in today's stage of the Tour de France when he slipped to 9th in the overall standings. The Czech had cramps on the final climb and missed key rider David De La Cruz who crashed out of the race a few days ago.

The 17th stage of the Tour de France turned out to be a real challenge for NetApp – Endura captain Leopold König. On the final climb up Pla d’Adet in Saint-Lary the 26-year-old Czech rider was suffering from cramps, which meant he had to let his direct rivals pull away without him.

As a result, he moved down two spots in the general classification. König is now in ninth place overall going into the final mountain stage. Once again, the winner of the day was Polish rider Rafal Majka (Tinkoff – Saxo), who as a solo rider overcame the final climb with the fastest time. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) held on to the yellow jersey without any trouble.

“It was a very difficult day for the entire team, and especially for Leo," said Sport Director Enrico Poitschke, explaining the background details for the difficult stage. "But he fought hard and didn’t lose too much time. So the damage to us was limited, and we're optimistic that we'll be able to hold on to the spot tomorrow.

"Relatively early in the race, Leo reported to me by radio that he didn’t have good legs today. We still don’t know the reasons for that, but we’ll sit down together this evening and analyze the race.

"In spite of everything, he managed to maintain contact with the group of favorites for a long time. But then the cramps held him back on the last climb and he had to make his way up the mountain alone.

"On a day like this, one sees how important a rider like David would be as a domestique. David was in absolute top form and could have supported Leo very well today on the difficult last climb."