BMC Racing Team's Samuel Sánchez held onto his 12th place overall Saturday at the Tour de France by finishing 26th on the final mountain stage. The stage was animated by multiple breakaways and also a lot of attacks, also in the favourite group.

Sánchez reached the summit of Alpe d’Huez 5:01 after solo stage winner Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and 3:23 after Chris Froome (Team Sky), who remains the overall leader with one day of the race to go. After a thrilling battle with Nairo Quintana, the Brit has finally secured himself the win of the race with only Champs Elysses to go tomorrow.

"Today was a really hard stage – short and hard," Sánchez said. "On the Col de la Croix de Fer, Alejandro Valverde attacked and then Nairo Quintana attacked and the group split. In the final, it was an incredible fight to arrive first to the top."