Christophe Kern of Europcar, who shared the cusp on Stage 8 of the Tour de France, squeaked into the general classification Point d’Appui at the end of Stage 17.

Kern is sitting dead center of the peloton, 2:10:10 behind Tour leader Bradley Wiggins and 1:15:13 ahead of the new Lanterne Rouge, Jan Ghyselinck of Cofidis. The riders came home Thursday with an odd number after Radio Shack-Nissan pulled Frank Schleck.

Several riders are within striking distance as we go into a third day in the Pyrenees: Yaroslav Popovych, Marco Marzano, Andrey Kashechkin and Guillaume Levarlet. The nearest is only 40 seconds away from the fulcrum.

Barring more positive drug test results, the tour may finish with another Point d’Appui, its 52nd since the race began.