As he did in last year's Vuelta a Espana, Alejandro Valverde proved that he is a master in limiting his losses on bad days when he fought his way back to Thibaut Pinot, Tejay van Garderen and Romain Bardet on the final climb in today's queen stage. The Spaniard was pleased to have avoided disaster on what could have been a very costly day for him.

Consistency by Alejandro Valverde and excellent management and performance by the whole Movistar Team made the hardest moment so far in this year's Tour de France turn into a great comeback that makes the overall fight for the podium tighter but keeps the Spaniard in the same 2nd place he had before Wednesday's Queen stage in the Grande Boucle: 124 kilometers between Saint-Gaudens and Saint-Lary (HC), with three other Cat-1 climbs: the Portillón, the Peyresourde and Val-Louron.

After a great fight for the day's breakaway, three of the Blues made the 21-man front group that would ride on till the finish: Ion Izagirre, Jesús Herrada and Giovanni Visconti. All three stayed calm and strong - except for a brief action by Herrada - until the foot of Saint-Lary, where two consecutive attacks by Visconti left him alone with about thirty seconds' advantage.

Behind, Valverde stuck to the main favourites before a move by Jean-Christophe Péraud (ALM) with 6km remaining made him struggle greatly. Still, Valverde remained calm, and helped out by marvellous pursuit work by Herrada and Izagirre, who dropped back from the break, the Spaniard reached the wheels of Pinot (FDJ) and Bardet (ALM), on whom he gained five seconds at the finish, and completed his ride 50" after Péraud and race leader Vincenzo Nibali (AST).

Ahead in the break, Visconti was chased down and ultimately left behind by Rafal Majka (TCS), having to be content with 2nd place which confirms great condition at the end of a Tour he started three months after recovering from a horrible tibia fracture.

The Tour podium, now a tighter fight than ever - Valverde is 34" ahead of Pinot; 42" ahead of Péraud; and 2'08" ahead of Bardet - will be decided in Saturday's TT to Périgueux and the final mountain stage on Thursday: 146km starting at Pau and climbing two legendary, Hors Categorie climbs, the Col du Tourmalet and the finishing Hautacam. 

“I got myself through a very bad moment - I kept a steady pace, my team-mates were really phenomenal and we got through the day with even better results than we could when I got dropped," Valverde said. "I stayed calm, trying to maintain the same speed, but when I saw the 300m banner, I gave it everything to the finish. I'm happy to have handled it in this way.

"I had a bad moment for sure. But I always had my team-mates with me. I was able to recover my rhythm and to limit the damage with Nibali and Peraud. 

"We're still into the fight, doing the best we can - our rivals are strong, this is the Tour, you cannot take anything for granted and you've got to give your 100%.

"There's still a really demanding stage tomorrow; I don't know if it suits me better than today's, I think it's quite the same for me. We'll have to give everything again. 

"It's true that I have close rivals in Pinot and Peraud but Peraud is the one I fear the most because  he's very good in time trials. I know Hautacam well. It's going to be a very hard day, especially after the two days we just had. We're going to try and recuperate because tomorrow is another important day."