Contador claims Stage 14; Rasmussen pads lead
The sorting out continued at the Tour de France on Sunday as Alberto Contador and Michael Rasmussen emerged as the race’s most serious contenders, finishing one-two atop the Plateau de Beille at the end of a dramatic 197km stage from Mazamet. On the Tour’s first foray into the Pyrénées, it was Discovery’s Contador, the leader in the best young rider competition, who proved the only man capable of staying with race leader Rasmussen of Rabobank. While finishing second on the stage, Rasmussen more than doubled his advantage in the overall standings, placing himself in a comfortable position as the Tour heads to two more days in the Pyrénées. Contador, the winner of this year’s Paris-Nice stage race, claimed his first Tour de France stage win after easily countering Rasmussen’s final acceleration in the last 300 meters of a brutally difficult stage that featured two hor categorie climbs over the final 68km. Behind them several Tour favorites fell out of contention, chief among them Astana’s Alexander Vinokourov, whose impressive time-trial win on Saturday had many believing he might be capable of fighting his way back to the podium after encountering troubles earlier in the Tour.
But on Sunday, Vinokourov paid the price for that effort, as he faded out of the yellow-jersey group halfway up the day’s first hors-catégorie climb, the 17km Port de Pailhères climb. The man once considered to be the favorite for the overall title in this Tour eventually finished 28:50 behind the day’s winners. While Rasmussen solidified his grip on the yellow jersey, Contador vaulted past Australian Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) into second place overall, now trailing the Danish Rabobank leader by 2:23. Evans, who began the day in second overall at 1:00, dropped to third at 3:04 after failing to match Rasmussen and Contador's pace in the final kilometers of what turned out to be a thrilling race of attrition. Contador’s teammate, American Levi Leipheimer, finished 40 seconds behind the two leaders, moved up to fourth place on GC, but sits 4:29 out of first with Astana’s Andreas Klöden in fifth at 4:38. Rasmussen appears to be in prime position to claim what might turn out to be a suspicion-laden Tour victory, but he concedes he has not won the race yet. "I'm thinking about tomorrow before I'm thinking about Paris. There's still another two tough stages in the Pyrénées, and another time trial," he said. “Certainly the Discovery Channel team has two cards to play, Leipheimer is close on GC but Contador is the biggest rival. We still have two days in the Pyrénées. Nothing is over until the final day in Paris.” The man holding that potentially winning hand, Discovery director Johann Bruyneel, said the day worked out as well as he could possibly hope. “We prepared a strategy in the morning and it worked to perfection,” Bruyneel said. “It was a good stage for Contador to win and we wanted to take time on Evans and Klöden. The team was like the old days, not in the sense of the domination, but how we achieved our goals as we stated them. We wanted the stage, to conserve the white jersey and push Levi and Alberto closer to the podium, so it was a successful day. I believe in both Alberto and Levi.” Contador said he was pleased with the stage victory on Sunday and didn’t dismiss the possibility of trading his white jersey for yellow before reaching Paris in a week. "Today is a big win for me, but I think there's still a lot of racing ahead,” Contador said. “Tomorrow is hard, so too is the Aubisque and the final TT. I can still have a bad day, but maybe Rasmussen can, too.” An early climb
The attacks began almost as the flag dropped and the peloton wound its way out of Mazamet and up the day’s first obstacle, the Côte de St-Sarraille, which crested just 9km from the start. With Barloworld’s Juan Mauricio Soler in the hunt for KOM points, the pace up the Category 2 climb was quite high. The Colombian, who won stage 9 at Briançon in the Alps, began the day nine points behind Rasmussen in the contest for the polka-dot jersey and managed to grab four for a second place on the top of the Côte de St-Sarraille. But it was on the descent that the day’s usual break formed up as six men - Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel), Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel), Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas), Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) and Antonio Colom (Astana) – moved on the long approach to the first of the day’s big climbs. With a finish so close to home, thousands of rowdy Spanish fans poured over the border to see their riders do well in their mountains. Spanish riders have always done well in the Pyrénées, especially the Basques, and one of them, Saunier Duval’s Iban Mayo, wanted a win Sunday after a disappointing performance in the Saturday's TT. "If it means I am going to finish seventh in Paris, I'd rather win a stage," he said at the start. With the day’s escapees bumping their advantage to nearly 11:30, Mayo’s teammates drove the chase for most of the ride to the base of the Port de Pailhères. The gap was trimmed to 7:30 by the start of the climb and Saunier Duval sent several of its strongest to the front to set the tempo on the 17km climb. It was Millar’s pace that caused Vinokourov to lose contact with a shrinking yellow-jersey group, but the pace also proved to be too high for the man he was intending to help. Soon after Millar’s effort was over, Mayo himself slipped off the back of the group. While he would eventually regain contact on the descent, Mayo was blown — and so were his chances for a stage win. The pace also took its toll on Evans, who later said he used up valuable reserves trying to stay with the group. “I thought Saunier Duval did something stupid by pushing the pace so much,” he said. “It was an incredible speed, and I don’t understand why they did that.” With the break’s sole non-Spaniard being dropped early, the remaining five escapees crested the summit in two groups but eventually regrouped on the descent. Behind an elite group of top contenders – absent Vinokourov – crested the climb 2:37 later. The final contest
While the Port de Pailhères took its toll, the day’s big contest awaited on the 16km climb to the finish at Plateau de Beille. Several riders managed to rejoin the yellow-jersey group on the descent to Ax-les-Thermes and the ensuing 10km of relatively flat roads to the base of the final climb, but as soon as the road tipped up, most of those riders were dropped again. One exception, though, was Discovery’s Popovych. He’d been dropped on the Port de Pailhères, but fought back and then moved to the front of the peloton just as the climb to Plateau de Beille began. The Ukrainian set a rapid pace on the climb and immediately put another one-time favorite – Caisse d’Epargne’s Alejandro Valverde – under pressure. Popovych’s next victim was Klöden, who found himself forced to fight just to hold on to the rear of a very small yellow-jersey group. Indeed, by the time Popovych finally drifted off the back, the group had been trimmed to just a few of the Tour’s best climbers: Rasmussen, Evans, Carlos Sastre (CSC), Contador, Leipheimer and Soler. Rasmussen appeared comfortable and decided that with 8.5km to go, he would at least test his rivals to see who could – and could not – hold on. The Dane charged off the front and Evans, then Contador clawed their way back to the leader. Soler, Sastre and Leipheimer, too, fought their way back. The increased tempo showed cracks in the armor of some and resulted in most of the day’s original escapees being pulled back and eventually dropped. With 6.8km to go, only Astana’s Colom remained up front, but with the elite group behind him testing one another’s resolve it would be only a matter of time before he was caught. Soler, Rasmussen and Contador were the most aggressive and it was a rapid charge by the Discovery man that finally fractured the group. Only the man in the yellow jersey managed to follow. With 4km to go, the two men flew past the lone survivor and the day’s contest – perhaps the Tour’s – was left to be fought out between Rasmussen and Contador. Rasmussen brushed off claims that a discussion between him and Contador before their duel to the finish line was to arrange who would win the stage. "No, it was definitely not," he said. "This is the Tour de France, and there are no gifts here. Contador deserved his win." Contador seemingly contradicted that view of the finish. “We talked that I would win the stage if I didn't attack - the stage was for me,” Contador later explained . “Rasmussen made an attack at 1.5km to go. A very strong attack, but then we made the sprint - he's a man of his word …” But stage win or no, Rasmussen’s big bonus came in the form of the time he gained in the overall standings. The man in yellow began the day with a 1:00 advantage over Evans. He now enjoys a lead of 2:23 over second-placed Contador. Evans, who crossed the line in seventh at 1:52, said he’s not willing to concede defeat. “Rasmussen and Contador were the best,” he conceded, “but Klöden and I aren’t through. We can make something up in the time trial.” Leipheimer was pleased with the day’s result. “I felt really good on the climbs,” he said. “The only thing I can't go with those accelerations like Ras’ and AC. I'm happy that I was able to move up on GC today. I'm very happy AC won the stage. He's the best climber in the race and he really deserves it. I have no problem that he finished ahead of me today." Rasmussen said he considers the 24-year-old Contador to be his biggest threat. “Obviously Contador was the one making the race at the end,” he said. “I tried to take advantage of that. Contador and I became isolated and we had common interest in taking as much time as possible. In the end he was in a better position and got me in the last 20 meters. “When we got close to finish we were racing 100 percent to the finish line. This is Plateau de Beille, where riders like Pantani and Armstrong have won before. Both of us wanted to be added to the list of winners.” Almost as soon as he stepped off of his bike, Rasmussen was also fielding questions about his other big challenge of the week, the doping stories that have been dogging him for the past few days. Those questions he declined to answer. “I am trying to stay focused on the cycling,” he said. “I have one more week of the competition. If I have to deal with everything else, I’d go crazy.”
Stage 14
1. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel, 197km in 5:25:48
2. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, s.t.
3. Juan Mauricio Soler (Sp), Barloworld, at 0:37
4. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, at 0:40
5. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, at 0:53
6. Andréas Klöden (G), Astana, at 1:52
7. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, s.t.
8. Antonio Colom (Sp), Astana, at 2:23
9. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz), Astana, s.t.
10. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, at 3:06
Overall
1. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 64:12:15
2. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel, at 2:23
3. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, at 3:04
4. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, at 4:29
5. Andreas Kloden (G), Astana, at 4:38
6. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, at 5:50
7. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz), Astana, at 6:58
8. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 8:25
9. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne, at 9:45
10. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, at 10:55
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