Portuguese rider Rui Costa won the 16th stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday while Chris Froome maintained his healthy lead over Alberto Contador as both survived a downhill.
Costa broke away on the last climb of a hilly trek to secure the second stage win of his Tour career, crossing the line 42 seconds ahead of Christophe Riblon.
In the sprint for second place, Riblon beat Arnold Jeannesson, Jerome Coppel and German veteran Andreas Kloeden.
The stage started from the Provence village of Vaison-la-Romaine in the heart of Rhone winemaking country, and featured several medium-difficulty climbs along the 168km route to the Alpine town of Gap.
Froome and Contador finished more than 11 minutes behind Costa, who is not considered to be a contender for overall victory.
Cadel Evans' miserable race continued as he was dropped on the last climb and Australia's 2011 Tour de France champion finished another minute behind the Froome group.
About halfway up the day's final climb, Contador attacked, but Australian Richie Porte responded and got Sky teammate Froome back on Contador's wheel.
After a series of Contador attacks, Froome and and Porte got to the top together, but going downhill proved even more eventful.
On the descent, they were both in difficulty on a sharp right turn as the Brit chased the Spaniard.
Froome went off the left side of the road and had to plant his left foot on the ground to stop from toppling off as his right leg wheeled up into the air. Contador also lost balance and hit his knee on the ground before quickly jumping back up on the bike.
Contador said after that he was unhurt, but Froome blamed him for the incident.
"In my opinion it was a bit dangerous from Alberto to ride like that, it's not good," Froome said, criticising the aggressive attitude of both Contador and Saxo-Tinkoff teammate Roman Kreuziger.
"They attack uphill and they attack downhill. It's always difficult."
Bauke Mollema could have gained more time but chose instead to wait for Froome and Contador. Mollema remains second overall, 4:14 behind Froome, while Contador remains 4:25 back in third.
Froome will look to extend that lead in Wednesday's time-trial - one of his favoured disciplines. After that there are three huge mountain climbs in the Alps.
"We have three or four big days left before Paris, but the time-trial will be very tough with two climbs and two descents," Froome said.
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