Norwegian sprint specialist Thor Hushovd showed his climbing abilities by winning yesterday's 13th stage of the Tour de France, overtaking Frenchman Jeremy Roy near the end after making up time on the downhill finish.

Roy thought he had clinched the first Tour stage win of his career by attacking at the foot of the huge climb to Col d'Aubisque, but he did not have a big enough gap to hold off Hushovd and David Moncoutie, who overtook Roy near the line and finished second.

"I really didn't think I would win this stage," said Hushovd, who was also part of the Garmin-Cervelo team which won the team time trial early on in the race. "I did things right tactically."

Defending champion Alberto Contador of Spain and two-time runners-up Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans stayed way back as the main Tour contenders chose to save their energy for Saturday's mammoth climb up to Plateau de Beille.

"I was pretty tired from yesterday and tomorrow's a big day," Evans said. "There'll be fireworks, don't worry."

Hushovd, a two-time winner of the Tour's green jersey for best sprinter, is more used to dashing to the finish line than grinding uphill, but he has worked hard on his climbing ability to become a more complete rider.

"It's the best stage I've ever won on the Tour de France," said Hushovd, who has nine individual stage victories and two more from team time trials. "To win on my own is even more special, it's very emotional for me."

Thomas Voeckler kept hold of the race leader's yellow jersey for another day heading into Saturday's mammoth climbing stage. He was quick to praise Hushovd, who has also won stages on the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta.

"Thor is the best climber among the sprinters," Voeckler said. "I'm not surprised by his performance."

The 33-year-old Hushovd, who won the stage in 3 hours, 47 minutes, 36 seconds, is surprising even himself.

"I gave it all during the first week. I suffered yesterday but today I had stamina," Hushovd said. "I lost weight (this season), that's true. And I'm working differently, I'm riding a lot of climbs at training."

The peloton, including Voeckler, was lagging nearly nine minutes behind Hushovd when he completed the 152.5-kilometer (95-mile) jaunt from Pau to the Catholic shrine town of Lourdes.

The 28-year-old Roy's previous best on the Tour had been a second-place stage finish in 2008.

Having done most of the hard work climbing, Roy had to stay safe descending the 42 kilometers (26 miles) to the finish.

Roy had a nervous moment when a fan got to close and brushed him with his flag, causing Roy to swerve to the left, but he still seemed set for victory until world champion Hushovd – rated as one of the best in the world at downhills — started attacking aggressively on the descent.

"It's true that I descend very well," Hushovd said. "I knew I had to. It was super."

Hushovd had caught up with Moncoutie with about 25 kilometers (15.6 miles) remaining, and they took it in turns trying to close the gap on Roy, who led by 1 minute, 10 seconds with 20 kilometers to go.

That was whittled down to 18 seconds with 10K remaining and Hushovd caught him with 2K left, denying him of his first Tour stage.

"The disappointment is too big, it will be hard to take in," Roy said. "It's too hard for me. Only victory counts."

Hushovd sympathized, but not too much.

"It's a shame for Roy, he is young, he rode a very good stage," Hushovd said. "But I really wanted to win, too."

Hushovd had worn the yellow jersey earlier in the race after Garmin-Cervelo won the team time trial on stage 2, and Voeckler has worn it since taking it from him on the crash-marred ninth stage.

None of the main rivals took any time off each other, as there was no repeat of Thursday's attacks, where a tired-looking Contador lost 13 seconds to both Schleck and Evans.

Frank Schleck is second overall and 17 seconds ahead of Evans, 28 seconds ahead of his younger brother Andy, and 2:11 clear of Contador – who has been nursing a sore right knee after hitting it twice in separate crashes.

"I don't feel any pressure," Frank Schleck said. "I'm convinced that I'm not going to have any regrets tomorrow."

German rider Andreas Kloeden, struggling with a stiff back and a sore elbow, abandoned the race, reducing the already battered RadioShack team to five riders.

A group of 10 riders forged ahead halfway through the stage, and were together as they approached the Col d'Aubisque – an Hors Categorie ascent lasting for 16.4 kilometers (10.2 miles) and so tough it does not have a classification.

Hushovd and Roy attacked first, with Frenchman David Moncoutie soon joining them. Struggling behind, British sprinter Mark Cavendish was dropped.

Cavendish, wearing the green jersey he hopes to win for the first time, was beaten by Jose Joaquin Rojas as he scrapped for points in the intermediate sprint.

As Rojas pipped Cavendish to 11th place in the intermediate, the Spaniard turned round to stare at Cavendish, who responded with a hand gesture as if to brush him away.

Saturday's 14th stage is the most grueling of the Pyrenean stages.

It starts out with a sharp climb up Col de Portet d'Aspet followed by two progressively category 1 ascents up Col de la Core and Col d'Agnes, before finishing with a long HC climb up to Plateau de Beille that stretches out for 15.8 kilometers.

The Tour's second rest day is today.