In the sixteenth stage, the race entered the high mountains with the queen stage crossing two hors catégorie climbs - the Col d'Aubisque and the Col du Tourmalet - followed by the first-category climbs of the Col d'Aspin and the Col de Peyresourde, completing the so-called Circle of Death. A 38-rider breakaway crossed the Aubisque, before fracturing on the Tourmalet. Voeckler attacked on the Peyresourde and took the stage win with a margin of one minute and forty seconds. Voeckler's stage victory and maximum points over all summits put him in the lead of the mountains classification. Wiggins, Froome and Nibali came in seven minutes after Voeckler, while Evans lost almost five minutes to the trio, falling from fourth to seventh in the general classification. In the final stage in the Pyrenees, the seventeenth, after a number of attacks on the leading group containing the overall contenders, Alejandro Valverde moved clear over the hors categorie Port de Balès. He held his lead to the summit finish at the Peyragudes ski resort. In the group behind, Wiggins and Froome attacked their rivals to finish nineteen seconds later. Nibali came in seventh, a further eighteen seconds down. In the following stage, six riders from a breakaway were caught on the finishing straight in Brive-la-Gaillarde by the head of the chasing peloton, with Cavendish taking the victory ahead of Matthew Goss and Sagan respectively.