Richie Porte's hopes of becoming Australia's second Tour de France winner are all but over despite improving one spot to 15th overall after the 14th stage.
Young Polish rider Rafal Majka made up for the disappointment of finishing second on Friday by winning Saturday's stage as Italian race leader Vincenzo Nibali came home in second place to extended his overall advantage in the yellow jersey.
Nibali increased his advantage over second-placed Alejandro Valverde, who struggled around 2km from home, to four minutes and 37 seconds after the 177km Alpine stage from Grenoble to Risoul.
After Friday's disastrous stage - when he struggled in the heat to drop from second overall to 16th - Porte edged to 15th but the Sky team leader was 27th across the line, more than five minutes down, and now trails Nibali by just over 16 minutes.
Majka joined a group of 17 escapees early on in the stage and was able to hold on all the way to the finish, with Frenchman Jean-Christophe Peraud third behind Nibali.
It was a welcome relief for Majka, having been reeled in and passed by Nibali on Friday's first stage in the Alps, but also for his Tinkoff-Saxo team after losing leader Alberto Contador to injury.
"This morning I spoke with my teammates because yesterday I was second and I spoke also with the team and (manager) Bjarne (Riise) and I said if I get in the breakaway I will win the stage," said the 24-year-old Majka.
"At the bottom of the final climb we had an advantage of one minute, 10 seconds over the peloton and I attacked and I dropped everyone, (Joaquim) Rodriguez and the Cannondale rider (Alessandro De Marchi) and I tried to win alone.
"When the gap was 35 seconds with 2km left to the finish, I kept my motivation and fought for the stage win."
Majka held on to win by 24 seconds to Nibali with Peraud another two seconds behind.
Nibali had attacked his rivals in the overall standings inside the final 4km and as he rode away the true battle for the podium places really started to hot up.
Valverde finished 10th and is now only 17 seconds up on Romain Bardet in the general classification and almost five minutes behind Nibali.
Nibali had won the three previous uphill finishes and when he started to close in on Majka, it looked like he might maintain a 100 per cent record on the summits.
But he said that wasn't his aim.
"When I attacked I tried to gain time, I saw that with a 50-second lead it would be difficult to catch Majka for the victory," said the 29-year-old from Sicily.
"I tried to manage the situation and just put some time into Valverde and the other rivals.
"I felt good so I could try something and things went well."
Share
