PLATEAU-DE-BEILLE - Spaniard Alberto Contador won the 14th stage of the Tour de France, a 197-km ride from Mazamet to the Plateau-de-Beille on Monday (NZ time).
The Discovery Channel rider beat Dane Michael Rasmussen of Rabobank, who retained the overall leader's yellow jersey. Pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov finished
more than 20 minutes behind after falling behind in the first ascent.
Colombian Barloworld rider Juan Mauricio Soler took third place.
New Zealand's Julian finished way back in 159th place, almost 35 minutes behind Contador.
"Winning a stage on the Tour de France with so many people on the roadsides is just a dream," said Contador.
The 33-year-old Rasmussen, at the centre of a controversy after failing to inform the UCI of his whereabouts while training, enjoys a two-minute-23-second lead over Contador.
Australian Cadel Evans of the Predictor Lotto team dropped to third in the overall standings, 3:04 adrift of Rasmussen, after ending the stage 1:52 behind Contador in seventh.
"We tried to widen the gap with our rivals when we saw that Evans and (Carlos) Sastre were in trouble," said Rasmussen.
"First of all, I think of tomorrow. There are still a lot of kilometres remaining."
Evans said it had been a tough stage but that the race was far from over.
"It was a very very hard stage," said Evans. "Maybe they (Rasmussen and Contador) have an option for overall victory. But there is one time trial remaining."
Contador's team mate Levi Leipheimer of the United States took fourth place to stay in contention in fourth place overall, 4:29 adrift of Rasmussen, while German Astana rider Andreas Kloeden lies fifth, 4:38 off the pace.
CSC rider Sastre, fifth in the stage, is sixth overall. Vinokourov, who won Saturday's time trial in Albi, was the first rider to drop out of the yellow jersey group, arriving at the summit of the Port de Pailheres five minutes behind the leaders. He ended the stage 28:50 off the pace.
Spaniards Iban Mayo and Alejandro Valverde, who had a disastrous time trial, were quickly spat out of the group in the climb of the Plateau-de-Beille and have been ruled out of the race for a podium finish in Paris.
- REUTERS
