Discovery Channel cyclist Alberto Contador won a mad-scramble uphill finish for Stage 4 of Paris-Nice bike race in Mende on Thursday, as second-place finisher Davide Rebellin of Italy took the overall leader's jersey.
The 104-mile stage from Maurs to Mende — the first hilly stage of the tour — shook up the general classification, which doesn't include Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer or any other Americans in the top 10.
The Discovery team's efforts to chase down a three-man breakaway put Spanish teammate Contador, 24, in a position to attack on the 10% gradient in the final 2 miles, bettering his overall standing from 33rd at the beginning of the day to 2nd place overall after the finish.
GC leader Rebellin of Gerolsteiner had started the day in 11th place.
Discovery team leader Leipheimer finished 33 seconds behind the winner in a respectable 8th place. But that knocked him 50 seconds behind overall leader Rebellin into 13th place.
2005 Paris-Nice winner Bobby Julich also fell back as he finished 1:39 behind the winner, falling back to 34th place at 1:53.
With three days of racing remaining, it's the climbing specialists who will benefit. Two category 2 and two category 3 climbs face the racers on Friday's 110-mile stage, and Saturday sees one category 1, five category 2's, and two category 3 climbs.
The final 80-mile stage into the hills outside of Nice on Sunday is a challenge with three category 1 climbs.
Rebellin is the third cyclist to wear the leader's jersey at the Paris-Nice this year, preceded by the UK's David Millar the first two days, followed by Franco Pellizotti the following to days.
See all results at VeloNews or CyclingNews. Also Reuters writes about Contador, as does Graham Watson (Paceline, reg. req.), who said that it looked like Contador was being set up to win the Paris-Nice by his teammates as early at Tuesday.
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