Contador Stays Strong; Armstrong Slips to 4th
Frank Schleck, right, won Wednesday's stage ahead of his brother, Andy, center, and the Tour's overall leader Alberto Contador, left.
The final mountain stage of the Tour de France Wednesday contained two dramatic battles in the Alps’ last steep climbs: the leader, Alberto Contador, holding strong while Andy and Frank Schleck tried to barge into the Tour’s top spots and Lance Armstrong battling valiantly to hold onto one of those spots.
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In the end, Contador succeeded and Armstrong failed. Contador held firm to his yellow jersey , staying with the Schlecks, the brothers from Luxembourg who ride together for the Saxo Bank team, as they attacked in the Alps’ most punishing test. In a final sprint, Contador finished second to Frank Schleck and ahead of Andy, secure as the overall leader.
In the final 10 miles, Armstrong had mounted a furious charge to catch up to them, putting on a move reminiscent of the dramatic mountain moves he had made in many of his seven Tour victories. But he could not make enough headway and fell back to fourth place in the standings, 3 minutes 55 seconds behind Contador.
Andy Schleck, 24, claimed second place over all, 2:26 behind Contador and Frank Schleck, 29, climbed to third, 3:25 back.
This was one of the Tour’s most grueling stages, with five climbs in a 169.5-kilometer, or 103.5-mile, stretch through the Alps from Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Le Grand Bornand. In Armstrong’s 2004 victory, it was a pivotal moment, when he overtook Andréas Klöden in the final stretch to win the stage and assure his victory.
This year, the stage essentially proved Armstrong would not win again. It was Klöden, Armstrong’s and Contador’s teammate, who attacked alongside Contador in the two final climbs, trying to keep the Schleck brothers from threatening Contador’s lead in this race. Armstrong did not attack, instead staying back with another contender, Bradley Wiggins of Garmin-Slipstream, who started the day in third place, nine seconds behind Armstrong and 1:46 behind Contador.
Klöden did fall back from the Contador-Schleck group, but Armstrong was two and a half minutes behind the lead when he finally surged forward. He dropped Wiggins on the steepest part of the last climb and tried to make up ground on the steep descent, riding by himself.
Armstrong picked up an ally, Vincenzo Nibali of Italy, who rode with him as he overtook Klöden in the final miles, but could not close enough of the gap on the lead pack to keep the Schlecks from surpassing him in the standings. He finished 2:18 behind them.
Thursday’s stage will be an important one as well, the race’s final individual time trial that will most likely determine the final order of the top riders. The race ends with a largely ceremonial ride into Paris on Sunday.Source
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