Geraint Thomas came even closer to winning the 2018 Tour de France on Wednesday, finishing third on Stage 17 and extending his lead in the overall classification by nearly 20 seconds. Nairo Quintana, meanwhile, nabbed his first Tour stage in five years with a hard-won victory in the Pyrenees.

Quintana finished the stage 28 seconds ahead of Dan Martin, securing a comfortable win on the highest summit finish of the race this year. Thomas, who has led the Tour since Stage 11, added more time to protect his yellow jersey while Sky teammate Chris Froome dropped in the overall standings from second to third place. Thomas now has 1:59 over Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin and 2:31 over Froome.

Movistar’s Quintana also moved ahead in the General Classification, taking fifth place from AG2’s Romain Bardet, who fell to eighth overall.

Team Astana’s Tanel Kangert led the stage for most of the day, but was caught by Quintana and Bora-Hansgrohe’s Rafał Majka 8.5K from the finish. Quintana then dropped Majka about 2K later, while Martin overtook Kangert 7.5K from the finish and held on for second place.

Toward the end of the Tour’s second day in the Pyrenees, Primož Roglič, who sits fourth overall, attacked twice from GC group. The second time Roglič went, Thomas got into his wheel and left Froome behind.

Dumoulin then attacked with about 2K to go, but Thomas kept pace and made one final attack of his own with only metres to go, finishing the stage five seconds ahead of Roglič and Dumoulin and inching even further to his first overall win in Paris.

Froome, who entered the Tour hoping to win it for a record-tying fifth time, now seems further from his goal than ever before. His failure to stay with Thomas in the final few kilometres means the defending champion is in danger of finishing off the podium.

Peter Sagan also had a bad day. The Slovakian rider – who has all but won the green jersey in the Points Classification – crashed badly 38K into the stage. Though he did finish, he looked banged up and was taken the the hospital for examination.

After a bad crash, @petosagan is finally here ?
Après une chute, @petosagan rejoint enfin l’arrivée ?#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/LLm8FgWmq0

— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 25, 2018

This article originally appeared on bicycling.com.

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