Category: Tour de France

The showdown on the Col Du Tourmalet lived up to expectations at the Tour de France on Thursday as Andy Schleck tried but failed to win back the yellow jersey he lost to Alberto Contador on Monday.

The contest for the yellow jersey on Stage 17 boiled down to the two men in the Pyrenees on the last climb of the race. Schleck attacked Contador time and again to close the 8-second gap, the Spaniard hung on.

The two appeared to glare at each other and exchange words. It's obvious there's no love lost between the two after Contador attacked Schleck on Monday as the Luxembourg cyclist struggled with a dropped chain. At the finish, however, the two exhausted competitors hugged and patted each others' backs. …..

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Lance Armstrong battled in the deciding breakaway on Stage 16 of the Tour de France all day on Tuesday only to bested in a 9-man sprint by stage winner Pierrick Fedrigo.

The 120-mile race over four major mountains came down to a sprint in the town of Pau as the overall race leaders struggled to stay together on the Col de Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin, Col du Tourmalet and Col d'Aubisque.

Although Andy Schleck wanted revenge on race leader Alberto Contador for winning the yellow jersey as he wrestled with a dropped chain on Monday, nothing came of that threat as Contador retained his 8-second lead.

This might have been Armstrong's swan song of the Tour de France …

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A dropped chain cost Andy Schleck the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Monday as Alberto Contador attacked after the mishap and made up more than the 31 seconds he had been trailing by.

The controversial decision by Contador to take advantage of a mechanical mishap on Stage 15 will surely dog him throughout the rest of the race. There are unwritten and debatable “rules” about gaining on adversaries who have crashed or suffered similar problems.

Angry and disappointed after the race, Schleck was asked whether he thought Contador's attack was fair:

“What's fair or not fair… it's not for me to decide. I would not have raced like that.

My stomach is full of anger. I want to take my revenge ….

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The two main rivals in this year's Tour de France battled so hard to outfox each other on the final climb of Ax Les Thermes on Sunday that they might have lost sight of the other competitors who finished ahead.

France's Christophe Riblon (AG2R) won the 114-mile Stage 14 from Revel to Ax-3 Domaines by joining a breakaway about 10 miles into the race. Riblon attacked and rode away from the break on the above-category Port de Pailheres and survived solo over the Ax Les Thermes.

Meanwhile, yellow jersey Andy Schleck and defending champion Alberto Contador played a game of cat and mouse as the race moved into the Pyrenees …

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Say what you will about one-time suspended Alexandre Vinokourov, but the Kazakh cyclist makes things happen.

The Astana cyclist showed his fighting spirit for the second day in a row at the Tour de France on Saturday when he attacked the peloton on a climb near the finish.

Unlike Friday, when he was basically chased down by team leader Alberto Contador and finished 3rd overall, Vino extended his lead over the last 5 miles of the race on Saturday and won Stage 13 in Revel by 13 seconds.

Andy Schleck's overall lead of 31 seconds ahead of Contador remains unchanged…

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Will the true leader of the Astana cycling team please stand up? It's Alberto Contador.

The defending Tour de France champion blasted past race leader Andy Schleck and Astana teammate Alexandre Vinokourov on the final climb of Stage 12 on Friday.

Joaquin Rodriguez of Team Katusha won the two-man sprint to the finish, but Contador gained 10 seconds on Schleck. He also reminded Vinokourov that he's the team leader.

Vinokourov seemed to have trouble understanding that concept in a couple of stages ….

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British sprinter Mark Cavendish undeniably achieved his 3rd win of the 2010 Tour de France — the 13th of his career — on Thursday's Stage 11.

What remains for debate, however, is how much some heavy-handed tactics by his HTC-Columbia lead-out man Mark Renshaw contributed to that victory. Renshaw, for his part, was booted out of the race by Tour officials.

Overhead views of the final sprint in Bourg les Valence show Renshaw head-butting Garmin-Transition's Julian Dean, who was riding on his right. Check out the video above at about 5:30 for overhead view of the finish. It's possible that Renshaw thought Dean was moving to the left to block Cavendish ….

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One day in the yellow jersey for Aussie Cadel Evans was about all she wrote as the 2010 Tour de France appears to be boiling down to a contest between Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador.

Shleck donned the yellow leader's jersey at the end of Stage 9, the most challenging so far with three major Alpine climbs over the 126 mile-route.

Contador grappled into second place overall, matching every one of Schleck's accelerations on the final climb on the Col de la Madeleine. Contador couldn't do that Sunday, but Contador was the sole contender who could do that on Tuesday. All others lost ground, with a disappointed Evans being the chief among them. He lost about eight minutes, dropping clear out of the Top 10 to 18th place …

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