LE GRAND-BORNAND, France, July 22, 2009 (AFP) – Australian Cadel Evans’
woes continued at the Tour de France on Wednesday when he suffered throughout the toughest day in the Alps on the race’s 17th stage.

Evans, the runner-up the past two years for his Silence team, finished the 169.5km stage from Bourg Saint Maurice to here in 81st place at 29min 43sec behind stage winner Frank Schleck of Luxembourg.

As Evans crumbled, the man who beat him by 23secs to win the 2007 edition, Alberto Contador, tightened his grip on the yellow jersey after finishing second on the stage.

Astana rider Contador now leads Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck by 2min 26sec overall, with his brother Frank moving up to third at 3:25 behind the Spaniard.

Lance Armstrong, the seven-time champion, came in around two minutes adrift to drop from second overall at 1:37 to fourth at 3:55 behind Contador.

Evans began struggling almost as soon as the road went upwards, on the Cormet de Roselend, and the Australian battled through the stage’s four remaining climbs to finish with the ‘grupetto’ – the sprinters and non-climbers to work together to limit their losses to the leaders.

Evans is now 32nd overall at 37:06.

His Belgian teammate Jurgen Van den Broeck, initially brought on the Tour to help Evans on the climbs, is Silence’s best placed rider at 17th overall
17:23 behind Contador.