Spain's Luis León Sánchez scored a saintly victory in the Pyrenees on Saturday at the head of a four-man breakaway.
The Caisse d'Epargne cyclist later said that he offered the stage win to a breakaway companion if he could capture the yellow jersey. That scenario didn't materialize in the 110-mile race through the mountains to Saint Girons, however.
Tour de France first-timer Rinaldo Nocentini held onto the overall leader's yellow jersey, and remained 6 seconds ahead of Alberto Contador and 8 seconds ahead of Lance Armstrong.
Columbia sprinter Mark Cavendish, however, lost his green points jersey to Norway's Thor Hushovd, who gained sprint points on the road on Saturday. Cavendish, with two stage wins this Tour, has said he wants to be wearing the green jersey in Paris and win the final stage.
An early breakaway included the notables Cadel Evans, George Hincapie and Fabian Cancellara, among others. That break was reeled in early, however, because the General Classification teams like Astana don't want to let Evans get a stage victory.
Evans is a somewhat desparate man, sitting in 18th place at 3:07 out of first place. CyclingNews has a good story about what he was trying to accomplish today.
Sunday marks the last day in the Pyrenees for the peloton. The Col d'Aspin and Col du Tourmalet are on the scorecard. Any cyclist not wanting to wait to make a move in the Alps could do it on Sunday.
2006 Tour de France winner Oscar Pereiro, a teammate of Sanchez, dropped out of the Tour on Saturday due to “accumulate fatigue.”
Top 10 overall
1. Rinaldo Nocentini,
AG2R
2. Alberto Contador, Astana – 6
seconds
3. Lance Armstrong, Astana – 8
seconds
4. Levi Leipheimer, Astana – 39
seconds
5. Bradley Wiggins, Garmin – 46
seconds
6. Andreas Kloden, Astana — 54
seconds
7. Tony Martin, Columbia –
1:00
8. Christian Vande Velde, Garmin –
1:24
9. Andy Schleck, Saxo Bank –
1:49
10. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas – 1:54
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