Schleck and Contador easily distinguished themselves as the two strongest riders in stage 17, which ended at the Col du Tourmalet. They took a lead of over a minute against the race's other contenders. In the final few kilometers of the stage, Schleck repeatedly tried to drop Contador from his wheel to make up the time he needed to regain the yellow jersey, but Contador stayed with him. At the end, Contador did not try to sprint for the stage win, keeping the yellow jersey while Schleck took his second stage win. In the stage 19 time trial, a drastic change in wind direction as the day went on meant that early starters had considerably better times than the race's top riders. Contador was 35th on the stage, nearly six minutes down on the day's winner Fabian Cancellara, but he extended his lead over Schleck to 39 seconds – the exact amount of time he had gained as a result of the Luxembourger's mechanical incident on the Port de Balès. They finished in those positions after the Tour's largely ceremonial finale the next day, giving Contador his third Tour victory in as many participations, albeit his first without a stage win. The squad finished sixth in the teams classification.
