It looks like there won’t be a miracle finish for Alberto Contador in the 2007 Tour de France.

The 24-year-old Spanish phenom’ was the only rider within shot of race leader Michael Rasmussen, but Contador’s legs faltered on the beyond-category steeps of the Col d’Aubisque as the Dane darted away in the final kilometer to win his second stage and further tighten his grip on the yellow jersey.

Contador coasted across the line in third, 35 seconds back and quickly tipped his hat to the superior Rabobank rider.

“I started today’s stage to try to win the Tour but now I end it seeing that my chances are lost,” said Contador, now second overall at 3:10 back. “I wasn’t at my best today. I can’t do anything now but congratulate him. Now I will fight to keep my second place.”

With only four stages before Sunday’s finale in Paris, Contador knows any chance of dislodging Rasmussen from the Tour’s top spot ended in Wednesday’s final climbing stage of the 2007 Tour.

Discovery Channel had hoped to spring Contador on Rasmussen one more time, but Rabobank rode an excellent race to keep a short leash on a potentially dangerous early breakaway featuring Carlos Sastre that was neutralized with 10km to go.

Discovery Channel then succeeded in dropping podium threat Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) and isolating Rasmussen on the upper reaches of the day’s fifth and final climb. Co-captain Levi Leipheimer and Contador started to yo-yo Rasmussen with back-to-back attacks.

“When the Sastre break went, we let it go to force Rabobank to work,” said Discovery Channel sport director Johan Bruyneel. “On the last climb, Alberto attacked with his heart but he didn’t have the strength. That’s normal. He’s young and you can’t ask the impossible. With three or four kilometers to go, when I called up from the car for him to attack and he couldn’t, that’s when I realized it was over.”

Rasmussen said he learned something from Monday’s climbing stage over the Peyresourde. He coolly reeled in Contador’s first sortie with about seven kilometers to go and after that, he had no trouble as Contador ran out of steam as the climb pushed higher.

“I saw Monday that I wasn’t able to follow Contador’s accelerations, so we changed our tactic today and I rode more at my own rhythm,” Rasmussen said. “I could see he was tiring. When I attacked in the final kilometer, he blew up.”

There were no sad faces around the Discovery Channel bus. Contador has been the revelation of the 2007 Tour and his impressive performance has only fueled his and the team’s ambitions for the future.

Contador has forgotten about winning the Tour, but still has to fend off Evans in the final time trial to keep his second place. Evans is sandwiched in third, 1:57 behind Contador and 56 seconds ahead of Leipheimer.

“Now it’s time to recover and put a nice finish on this Tour before starting to think about the future,” Contador said. “Today was very hard and long and hot. I knew from the beginning of the stage I wasn’t at my best. I am still very satisfied with this Tour.”

Contador has already been hailed as Spain’s next big Tour winner. Bruyneel said the future of the team will be built around Contador’s spindly legs and said the team will celebrate what’s been a successful 2007 Tour.

“It’s been a huge Tour for us. We have a stage win, pretty much have the white jersey sewn up and the team GC is looking pretty good. We have two options for the podium with Alberto and Levi,” Bruyneel concluded. “We may have lost the Tour today, but we didn’t lose everything.”

Contador won’t win the Tour this year, but Bruyneel and just about everyone in Spain believes it won’t be very long before he does.