Nine minutes after stage winner Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) crossed the finish line in Peyragude, Ineos Grenadiers co-leader Adam Yates stopped on the downhill descent just before the finish in Altiport, high in the Pyrenees.

Yates, who came into the day in sixth place in this year's Tour de France GC, coughed and wheezed in front of the waiting press and was quickly tended to by team member Soigner.

Yates dropped out of the lead on the final climb of the Col d'Aze with 53 km to go in the 129.7 km day of crossing four tough Pyrenean peaks. He was unable to return to the front and finished the day three places down in the overall standings, 14:33 behind Tour leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

After a short break to recover from a steep gradient with a few meters to go before the finish, Yates said he was struck by a chest infection that had afflicted teammates Dani Martinez and Jonathan Castroviejo earlier in the race.

"Yeah, I mean, I was personally sick," Yates said. 'I've been trying to do the best I possibly could the last couple of days, but it caught up with me. I don't know where he was today, but he seemed okay on the radio.

"Several people were sick at the start, including Dani and Castro. 'I've done my best to stay healthy, but this isn't my year. I keep getting sick. That's the reality."

"In sports, if you miss even 1% of a race, you're not going to be at the top at that point. Let's see what happens in the next race."

Despite his poor health, Yates worked for Thomas on the stage and the Welshman held on to third place overall, despite being two minutes behind Vingegaard and stage 17 winner Pogachar.

After Tuesday's stage in Foix, the first of three consecutive Pyrenees stages, Thomas praised the 29-year-old Yates for his work, even though his contract expires at the end of the season.

Yates said after the 17th stage that he is working on his recovery to finish the Tour in Paris on Sunday. But he will continue to support Thomas as long as he can.

"Like I said before, I've been sick the last few days, I tried to pick up the pace on the steep climbs on G, but honestly I just hung on. We have one more mountain stage and I'm trying to help G out as much as I can.

With four stages left before the end of the race, including Thursday's summit finish at Autacam and the time trial on stage 20, Ineos Grenadier's hopes of an eighth Tour win appear to be dead.

Thomas is nearly 5 minutes behind Vingegaard, but will be able to celebrate his third podium finish.