Contador wins Tour stage 18 time trial
Contador obliterates competition in Annecy, Armstrong moves into third GC
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Yellow jersey Alberto Contador flew around the 40.5km Annecy time trial course to win the stage and cement his lead in the Tour de France. Contador beat time trial specialist Fabian Cancellara by two seconds, and put 50 seconds or more on the other GC competitors, including teammates Andreas Klöden and Lance Armstrong.
Contador was fastest through all but one of the intermediate time checks, making his biggest gains on the course’s one climb, and holding his advantage to the end.
"I had a great day," Contador said. "I was thinking about the GC more than winning the stage."
Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) rode what for him was a phenomenal time trial, finishing in 21st and holding onto his second overall placing.
The Tour’s final time trial
Excluding one 3km climb, the course was relatively flat, favoring big, powerful riders. It was a contrast from the challenging and technical course in Monaco that kicked off the 2009 Tour de France. Riding counter-clockwise around Lake Annecy, the course was flat for 25km, then kicked up the Col de Bluffy for about 3km. From there, a downhill stretch took riders to Veyrier-du-Lac at about 5km to go, and then it was another flat run-in to the finish.
As many expected, Cancellara set the early best time of 48:34, with Mikhail Igantiev (Katusha) slotting in 12 seconds behind.
But this late in the Tour, the only time splits people were paying attention to were those between the overall contenders.
At the day’s start, Alberto Contador held a commanding lead, 2:26 ahead of Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and 3:25 ahead of Frank Schleck.
But right behind the Schleck brothers — both admittedly weak time trialists — sat three of the best TT riders in the world, Armstrong (3:55 to Contador) and Klöden (4:44) (both Astana) and Bradley Wiggins (4:53) (Garmin-Slipstream).
Wiggins, an Olympic gold medalist on the track, came out flying, setting a new best time through the first time check at 18km of 20:20.
Armstrong was clearly riding with the general classification in mind, too, and had pulled back the 30 seconds Frank Schleck had on him just halfway through the time trial. Armstrong’s first time check was 20:29, just ahead of Klöden (20:39) and Cancellara (20:39).
Frank Schleck came through at 21:04, and his brother Andy at 20:46.
Contador, riding under the media criticism of his attack on the Col de la Colombiere, continued to stamp his dominance on the race. His first time check was 20:02, the best of all 158 men still in the race.
At the second time check, Armstrong and Klöden had slipped to 12th and 13th on the road, while Andy Schleck had fallen to 21st, more than a minute behind Ignatiev’s best mark.
But at the third time check — the one at the top of the Col de Bluffy at 28.5km, Andy Schleck had clawed back time, and was only 5 seconds behind Armstrong. Armstrong opened up the gap on the run-in to the finish, eventually finishing 15 seconds ahead of Schleck, good enough to move into third GC.
"I suffered," Armstrong said. "Maybe I was empty from yesterday, I was cramped at the end. I felt good at the beginning, felt smooth, I felt aero, of course it was tailwind, so everyone felt good then. I wasn't that strong on the climb, but I guess the end result was okay."
Wiggins finished sixth, 43 seconds back on Contador.
When all was said and done, the GC looked like this:
1. Contador
2. A. Schleck (4:11)
3. Armstrong (5:25)
4. Wiggins (5:36)
5. Klöden (5:38)
"Now I am more comfortable going ahead toward the GC," Contador said. "This stage victory is very important for the overall. I am very tired after the stage, I gave the maximum. It went better than I expected. I won against some of the best specialists today. We’re see how I do in the mountains on Ventoux."
Indeed, with only a relatively easy stage on Friday, and the traditional parade stage Sunday into Paris, it is only Saturday's stage that finishes atop Mount Ventoux that could shake up the GC.
And given Contador's climbing form, he doesn't have anything to worry about.
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