Kazakhstan's Alexander Vinokourov clinched his second stage victory of this year's Tour de France when he won the 196-km 15th stage from Foix.
The Astana rider, who lost all hope of winning the overall race when he crashed on Sunday, broke away 15 km from the summit of the Col de Peyresourde to beat Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen of the T-Mobile team.
Spanish Euskaltel rider Haimar Zubeldia came home third.
Current holder of the yellow jersey Michael Rasmussen was attacked during the last climb by Alberto Contador, who is currently second in the overall standings, but managed to hold on to maintain his race lead of two minutes 23 seconds.
Australian Cadel Evans and Germany's Andreas Kloeden were unable to respond to Contador's challenge and they finished 56 seconds behind the pair.
Evans is third, four minutes adrift of Rasmussen, with American Levi Leipheimer fourth 1:25 further behind.
Vinokourov's team mate Kloeden is fifth, 5:34 off the pace.
"Yesterday, I had no strength. I told myself the Tour is over but I got the support of the whole team," said Vinokourov, who had been back in contention after winning Saturday's time trial in Albi.
The Kazakh, however, lost almost half an hour on Sunday as he crashed during the ascent of the Plateau-de-Beille.
"I said this morning that I wanted to give it a try. I knew the Col de Peyresourde very well."
Vinokourov was part of the 24-man breakaway that built an advantage of 9:50 over the main pack.
The Kazakh attacked at the bottom of the category-one climb and never looked back.
A rest day is scheduled for Tuesday before Wednesday's hardest stage in the Pyrenees, a 218.5-km ride from Orthez to the Col d'Aubisque.