Schleck's surge fails to drop Contador

CYCLING/TOUR DE FRANCE:ALBERTO CONTADOR'S calm, assured grip on this year's Tour de France tightened yesterday when the 27-year-old resisted all attacks by Andy Schleck on the last mountain stage of the race.

On a cold, wet day of three major climbs, Saxo Bank leader Schleck did everything in his power to drop the Spaniard. He got his team to drive the peloton along at a torturous pace, then unleashed a strong attack approximately 10 kilometres from summit of the Col du Tourmalet.

His acceleration blew the doors off the other general classification contenders, but Contador stayed in control. He latched on to his younger rival’s wheel and stayed there, fending off other surges plus the overall rapid pace Schleck set on the legendary climb.

Contador made just one aggressive move of his own, a short burst of speed with 3.8kms remaining. Rather than being an attempt to shell his rival, the surge served to show he himself would not be dropped, and that Schleck had no hope of getting back the eight seconds which separated him from the yellow jersey.

From that point on his rival knew his chances were limited. He continued setting the pace to the top but had to be satisfied with the stage win and a cementing of his second-place overall.

“I could not drop him. He was always there,” the weary Schleck admitted afterwards. “I wanted to find out if he was getting weak but he didn’t succumb. He even attacked me to show, ‘Hey, listen young boy, I’m still here! You better stop playing these games with me’.”

Although Contador is yet to win a stage, he was content to give Schleck the win as a response to the tensions that sprung up between them earlier this week. He knows now overall victory is almost certain, as he is eight seconds clear of the Luxembourg rider and is a far stronger time trialist. Consequently, he should be able to build his advantage in Saturday’s race against the clock.

The stage saw a superb performance from Ireland’s Nicolas Roche, who dug deep to stick with a group of overall contenders for almost the entire climb. He crossed the line three minutes 26 seconds back and took 12th place on the stage. The performance led to the Ag2r La Mondiale rider gaining time on several rivals and improving three places from 18th, getting back on course for his goal of a top-15 finish in Paris.

“I am really happy,” he told The Irish Times afterwards, saying the key was to treat it as a single stage and get every drop of effort out of his body. “My plan today was to really focus on the finishing climb and not to concentrate on the general classification. It worked out pretty good. I’d like to have been able to stay in the chase group for longer as that would have given me a bit more time, but I know that I rode as hard as I could and am satisfied with the result.”

Roche played things calm early on, sitting in the peloton when a break containing Kristjan Koren (Liquigas-Doimo), Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team), Edvald Boasson Hagen, Juan Antonio Flecha (both Team Sky), Remi Pauriol (Cofidis), Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) and Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) slipped away. He also didn’t react when 2008 Tour winner Carlos Sastre accelerated clear, recognising they were all likely to be brought back on the last climb. Kolobnev soloed clear from the break 15kms from the line but was caught and passed by the Schleck/Contador duo seven kilometres later.

Today’s stage is a flat one to Bordeaux and unless there are strong sidewinds, it will almost certainly go to the sprinters and not affect the general classification. Contador and Schleck will wait until tomorrow’s 52kms time trial to settle the eight-second difference between them.

Also up for grabs are the other placings; Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) are third and fourth overall and separated by just 21 seconds, while Roche is one minute 57 seconds ahead of Alexandre Vinokourov in his hunt for that top-15 overall placing.

“It is not going to be easy,” he admitted. “I am going to have to do a great time trial to keep that 15th place as Vino is just behind me, and (Thomas) Löfkvist as well. They are both great time trialists. But that gives me an extra little motivation for the stage, trying to keep that overall position.”