Contador sends out warning to rivals ahead of Pyrenees
Source: Agencies |
July 17, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DEFENDING champion Alberto Contador showed his fighting spirit when he gained 10 seconds over Andy Schleck in their Tour de France battle yesterday.
Contador was second in the 12th stage, a 210.5-km ride from Bourg de Peage, after he was outsprinted by compatriot and stage winner Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver.
Contador's lieutenant at Astana, Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov, was third, four seconds behind.
Twice Tour champion Contador attacked in the final climb, a 3.1-km section at an average gradient of 10.1 percent, and Schleck, who retained the yellow jersey, could not respond.
The Luxembourg rider was fifth in the stage, 10 seconds behind, and now holds a 31-second advantage over Contador two days before the Tour enters the Pyrenees.
"We played it smart in the finale and we took a little bit of time off Andy; too bad we could not win the stage," Vinokourov told reporters. "It gives us confidence for the Pyrenees."
Meanwhile, Schleck said cobblestones have no place on the Tour de France, insisting they were too dangerous.
The Luxembourg rider's brother Frank crashed heavily on one of the seven cobbled sections of stage three last week and pulled out of the race with a broken collarbone which required surgery.
Cobblestone stages
"Some stages are not fitting for the Tour de France, I mean the cobblestone stages. I had a great day, I was well prepared, but cobbles are not good in the Tour," said Schleck, who finished fifth on that stage.
"If some riders want to ride like in Paris-Roubaix, let them ride Paris-Roubaix," he said, in reference to the famous one-day classic held on the cobbles in April.
"It's not even because Frank crashed, it is just my opinion, regardless of what happened, that it's too dangerous," he added.
The younger of the Schleck brothers also dismissed the suggestion the Tour was destined for pure climbers as opposed to all-rounders.
"(Alberto) Contador did not win the Tour in the mountains only but thanks to his time-trials. And I showed on the cobbles that I was not a pure climber either," Schleck said.
Meanwhile, four-time Olympic champion Chris Hoy has withdrawn from this year's Commonwealth Games to focus on the London 2012 Olympics.
Hoy is prioritizing the European Championships, which is a month after the October 3-14 New Delhi Games and earn qualification points for the Olympics.
Hoy won Commonwealth gold medals for Scotland in 2002 and 2006.
British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford said yesterday that "for Chris his whole career is based around the Olympics so it makes sense that he focuses on Olympic point-scoring events."
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