Contador gains
Three-time champion surprises rivals
GAP, France – Alberto Contador has finally put the hammer down at the Tour de France – and now, the race is really on.
Minutes behind the race leader, the defending champion surprised key rivals with a brazen attack on a relatively easy climb in the Alpine foothills in Tuesday’s Stage 16, won by Thor Hushovd of Norway in a breakaway.
Contador, baring his teeth as his tires sizzled on the rain-slick roads, surged out of the pack on the mid-grade Col de Magne climb, and held on through a treacherous downhill to the finish of the 101-mile ride from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Gap.
“I knew I needed to attack,” Contador said. “I couldn’t care less if someone kept on my wheel – I knew one of them would fail. I’m so happy. It has been a major gap, much bigger than I expected.”
The unexpected surge by the Spaniard shook up the leaderboard of the race, which ends Sunday in Paris after a jaunt today into Italy, then two days in the Alps, and a time-trial Saturday in Grenoble.
Among the contenders, only Cadel Evans kept up. The Australian actually outpaced the Spanish three-time champion by 3 seconds at the end. But Contador, who lost time with crash trouble earlier in the race – had trimmed 18 seconds off his deficit to overall race leader Thomas Voeckler of France, down to 3 minutes, 42 seconds.
More important, the Spaniard recovered more than a minute on his runner-up at the last two Tours, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, a top climber who almost inexplicably didn’t keep up on the relatively easy final ascent.
Schleck conceded he was “disappointed,” but that “there are other chances to take back time.”
Voeckler, a Frenchman who has been one of the revelations of this year’s Tour, knows that Contador is often better than he is in mountain climbs and the time-trial – and expects to lose the yellow jersey soon.
“I kept it by a handful of seconds, but that shows that I’ve hit my ceiling,” he said.
Hushovd, a Garmin-Cervelo rider who wore yellow for six days in the first week, and also won Stage 13, led a three-man breakaway to win.
Evans finished 4:23 back in 11th place. Voeckler and Frank Schleck crossed 21 seconds later. Andy Schleck was 1:09 slower than Evans – and 1:06 behind Contador.