It's looking like Lance Armstrong doesn't want to give up the yellow jersey.
Despite being abandoned by the rest of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team on the final climb of Saturday's stage, Armstrong battled to stay close to a breakaway group of two riders that gained about 27 seconds on him.
The six-time Tour de France winner has been in the yellow jersey since the end of Tuesday's stage. The Tour still has two weeks to go until it ends in Paris on July 24.
The winner of the 143-mile 8th stage from Pforzheim, Germany, to Gérardmer, France, was Pieter Weening of Rabobank. In 41st place, he's not a serious threat for the overall jersey.
But the man in second, Andreas Kloden, is the T-Mobile rider who beat Jan Ullrich to a podium position last year. Kloden finished the day in 9th place overall, 1:50 behind Armstrong. Kloden rose from 24th place at the start of the day.
A seven-man breakaway, containing Weening, led for much of the day. In the midway between the end of the first series of climbs and the beginning on the final climb, the group had more than a 6 minute lead on Armstrong. The group included three riders whose time would have put them ahead of Armstrong on the road. They were Ronny Scholz (Gerolsteiner), Juan Antonio Flecha (Fasa Bortolo) and Nicki Sorensen (CSC).
The mountainous stage today shook up the general classification below Armstrong. He's being pressed by racers from T-Mobile and Team CSC.
Teammate George Hincapie, for instance, dropped out of second place. The leaders are:
Armstrong;
Jens Voigt (2, CSC) 1:00 behind the leader;
Alexandre Vinokourov (3, T-Mobile) 1:02 behind;
Bobby Julich (4, CSC) 1:07;
Ivan Basso (5, CSC) 1:26;
Jan Ullrich (6, T-Mobile) 1:36 behind;
Carlos Sastre (7, CSC) 1:36 behind;
George Hincapie (8, Discovery) 1:47 behind;
Kloden (9, T-Mobile)
and Floyd Landis (10, Phonak), both 1:50 behind.
Armstrong, Julich, Hincapie, and Landis are all from the US.
One not in that group and who hasn't been heard from a lot lately is Iban Mayo. The Spaniard says his Euskaltel-Euskadi team is planning to go on the attack.
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