Rui Costa won his second stage of the 100th Tour De France with a victory in Le Grand Bornand as Chris Froome move a step closer to being crowned the champion on Sunday in Paris.
Stage 19 was a 204.5km stage from Bourg d'Oisans to Le Grand Bornand and featured five climbs in the Hors category Col du Glandon (after 33.5km), The Hors category Col de la Madeleine (83.5km), the Cat 2 Col de Tamie (143km), the Cat 1 Col de l'Epine (165km) and the Cat 1 Col de la Croix Fry (191.5km).
Lars Bak (Lotto Belisol) and Jon Izaguirre (Euskaltel) were the first to attack and Izaguirre stayed away with Ryder Hesjedal who joined him to take a 7.10 lead on the peloton who were chasing a group of thirteen riders.
After Argos-Shimano's Tom Veelers who was the last rider in the general classification or the "laterne rouge", abandoned, Pierre Rolland caught up to Hesjedal and let him take the points on the Col de la Madeleine.
Marcel Sieberg of Lotto Belisol and Christophe Le Mevel of Cofidis, also retired, as the chase group chasing Rolland and Hesjedal went up to 23 riders and included Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale), Bart De Clercq (Lotto Belisol), Marcus Burghardt and Amael Moinard (BMC), Jan Bakelants, Laurent Didier and Andreas Kloden (Radioshack-Leopard), Alexandre Geniez (FDJ.fr), Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Jesus Hernandez (Saxo-Tinkoff), Mikel Nieve and Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Rui Costa, Ruben Plaza and Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Jerome Coppel and Danni Navarro (Cofidis), Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida), Lars-Petter Nordhaug (Belkin), Simon Geschke and Albert Timmer (Argos-Shimano), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil, Brice Feillu (Sojasun).
Rolland went away on the Col de Tamie to take the points and Hesjesdal dropped back to the chasing group.
He stayed clear until Rui Costa shot after him on the Col de la Croix Fry. The Portuguese rider was first up the final climb as Jean Gadret and Valverde gave chase.
The Movistar rider, who won in Gap continued on his way and made sure of his second win in this year's race, finished 48 seconds ahead of RadioShack's Andreas Kloden, Geniez and Navarro.
Chris Froome finished in a group with most of the riders in the top ten of the General Classification and keeps his 5.15 lead over Alberto Contador.