CYCLING TOUR DE FRANCE:HEADING INTO yesterday's ninth stage, the Tour de France appeared to be a wide open affair with a total of nine riders being within two and a half minutes of Cadel Evans' Maillot Jaune.
Two hundred and four dramatic kilometres later, Evans’ challenge had collapsed due to the effects of a fractured elbow, and two riders had emerged as the clear favourites for final victory in Paris. Alberto Contador (Astana) and Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), first and second overall last year, danced clear on the cruel slopes of the Col de la Madeleine, opening a considerable advantage over their general classification rivals, then hurtled down towards the finish in Saint Jean de Maurienne.
They caught up with a long-distance breakaway group inside the final kilometres and while they didn’t contest the final sprint won by Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux) ahead of Luis León Sánchez Gil (Caisse d’Epargne) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini), they each ended the day with smiles on their faces.
Schleck now takes over the yellow jersey, holding a 41 second lead over Contador. Olympic champion Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel — Euskadi) chased hard to finish behind their group and moves to third overall, but with a deficit of nearly three minutes, he’s heading out of the Alps with a metaphorical mountain to climb.
Schleck’s performance saw him grab the Maillot Jaune for the first time in his career and appeared upbeat about his chances of holding on in the Pyrenees. “The difference from this year to last year is that I could never drop Contador, but now he can’t drop me either,” he said after the jersey presentation. “The difference now is that I’m 41 seconds ahead of him and if he wants to win this he has to attack me.”
In truth, Contador didn’t climb the 28km Madeleine with all guns blazing. Once past the summit, there remained over 30kms of tricky, twisting descents and flat roads, and he likely reasoned that two working together would gain more time over those behind.
The RadioShack team of Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer had vowed to take revenge for the time lost by Armstrong two days earlier, but both riders were amongst those who slipped back when Schleck and Contador hit the jets. Evans and Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) were even further down the slopes, and so the duo worked together to eke out a lead of over two minutes to the best of the classification contenders.
“The differences have been bigger than expected,” a satisfied Contador said after the finish. “My team did extraordinary work. I decided to follow Andy, who tried several times [to drop him] and finally decided to work together. I think both of us won.
“We had to join together to distance the others. Now we have to be very vigilant with each other, but I’m very happy with the result and my feelings, I felt very good.”
Contador’s showing was a step forward from how he performed on Sunday’s Morzine-Avoriaz climb, where Schleck and Sanchez succeeded in taking 10 seconds out of him with a late attack. He expected to perform better on the steeper slopes, and knows he is a far stronger time trialist than his rival.
Like Wiggins, Ireland’s Nicolas Roche came under pressure on the climb and eventually finished in a group four minutes and 55 seconds back, the Ag2r la Mondiale rider placing 25th. He was disappointed afterwards but only dropped a single place, going to 17th overall.
Roche is still close to his pre-race goal of finishing in the top 15 overall in Paris, and may opt to sneak into a breakaway move in the days ahead and thus recoup some time.
Other riders targeting the overall classification will certainly be thinking along the same lines, but one who may opt to play things more quietly is Evans. He fell on Sunday’s stage and while he went on to take the yellow jersey, he clearly suffered yesterday. “I’m really paying for the consequences from that,” he said, referring to the fractured elbow which troubled him greatly and made it difficult to pull on the handlebars.
The race continues today with the last of the Alpine stages, although the 179 kilometre leg from Chambery to Gap is not as challenging in terms of mountains. However, fireworks can be expected, both by virtue of the fact that French riders will be keen to chase their fourth stage victory of the race on Bastille Day but right now the final yellow jersey appears to be between two riders.
