Rigoberto Urán put in a gutsy ride but was forced to concede the white jersey on a brutal stage 18 of the Tour de France.

The Colombian climber crashed on the fast descent off the Col d’Izoard and was helped back to the bunch after some stellar work from team-mates Geraint Thomas and Xabier Zandio.

Thomas was an assured presence in the high mountains as he paced Urán back to the peloton repeatedly before the elastic finally snapped on the Col du Galibier and the duo were forced to crest the highest summit finish in Tour history seven minutes and 31 seconds down on stage winner Andy Schleck.

The Leopard Trek rider unleashed a 60km attack on his general classification rivals after powering clear on the second climb of the day but narrowly missed out on yellow as Thomas Voeckler hung on with a career-best ride.

The Europcar man rode a canny tactical stage to hold on to the race lead by 15 seconds from Schleck, who took the victory on the day by two minutes and seven seconds over brother Frank (Leopard Trek).

As expected the Galibier was the scene of incredible drama and likely marked the end of Alberto Contador’s (Saxo Bank-Sungard) challenge for yellow, the Spaniard losing 3:50 as he cracked on the Alpine climb.

Cadel Evans (BMC) who was third on the day, led the chasing bunch up the steep ramps of the hors-categorie test with leader Voeckler seemingly content to let others do the work in shutting down the gap.

Contador was finally distanced as Evans drove the gap to Schleck down under three minutes on the brutal climb with a titanic effort, a dig matched by Voeckler who, although distanced, punched the air as he crossed the line knowing he was safe in yellow.

The penultimate mountain test condensed the leaderboard yet further at the sharp end, moving Frank Schleck to just 1:08 off Voeckler, while Evans, despite losing a place, is 1:12 back.

Limiting his losses

The complexion of the young rider’s classification would also change as a strong ride to eighth on stage by Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) saw the Estonian claim the white jersey by 33 seconds on Voeckler’s Europcar domestique deluxe Pierre Rolland.

Urán now sits third in the standings, 3:10 back in a classification that is still wide open with a short but highly significant mountain stage and a time trial to come.

Soon afterwards we spoke to Sports Director Sean Yates who told us: "From our point of view it was disappointing in that Rigoberto had a bad day. He had a crash on the descent from the Izoard but we’re only just on our way back down so I haven’t yet had chance to speak to him about it. He didn’t appear to be badly injured but he ripped his shorts so there was clearly an impact of some description.

Yates was full of praise for the efforts of both Thomas and Zandio, adding: "G helped Rigo as best he could and did a fantastic ride up the Lautaret and then to the finish on the Galibier. G was certainly the team-mate of the day and was able to help Rigoberto limit his losses.

"Xabi was also a big help, especially on the Izoard; Rigo had got gapped going up there but he helped him get back with the bunch before his crash.

"The rest of our guys were in a big group of over 80 riders which came in together and they'll just be looking to get through tomorrow now before we focus on the time trial."

Thomas explained exactly how the day had panned out for both himself and Urán, saying: "Rigoberto was struggling from the off with a chest infection today, he went off the back on the second climb but we managed to get him back on, and then he crashed halfway down the descent of it.

"We were all protecting him though leading onto the Galibier and then myself and Xabi paced him up that final climb. I had to wait for him a few times but it was a matter of trying to get him to the top as quickly as possible and limiting the damage from his rivals for the white jersey.

"On the bus on the way home he was tired and gutted but he has to remember he’s still in a great position – 15th on GC – and he’s only three minutes off the white jersey so it’s all still to play for. If he gets a good feed and sleep tonight hopefully he’ll be OK again tomorrow and anything can happen."

As to his own condition, the Welshman added: "I felt great today to be honest. I quite like the high climbs because I ride better in the cooler conditions – I really don’t like the heat – and the altitude doesn’t seem to affect me so much either."

All to play for

Friday's stage takes in the Galibier again, this time via the epic north face, before finishing atop Alpe d'Huez and Yates is expecting fireworks again from the main GC contenders, saying: "There will be some race up front – Andy Schleck will be wanting to put more time into Evans, while Voeckler is hanging on by the skin of his teeth and would like to go into the final TT in the jersey.

"It’s still possible for him to do that but he went very, very deep today as did everyone. Cadel took up the chase when everyone was looking at each other - hats off to him for taking the responsibility and he’s still in a very good position."