KEY POINTS:
LOUDENVIELLE-LE-LOURON - Alexander Vinokourov clinched his second victory of this year's Tour de France with panache when he won the 196-km 15th stage from Foix on Tuesday (NZ time).
The Astana rider, who lost all hope of winning the race when he cracked and crashed on Monday's 14th
stage, went solo 15 km from the summit of the Col de Peyresourde to beat Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen of the T-Mobile team.
Euskaltel rider Haimar Zubeldia of Spain came home third. Overall leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark retained the yellow jersey.
Rasmussen was attacked during the last climb by Spaniard Alberto Contador, second in the overall standings, but managed to resist the Discovery Channel rider to maintain his race lead of two minutes 23 seconds.
"I was about to be dropped. He is the one who has the best acceleration in the peloton," Rasmussen told reporters.
"I knew I had to stay in his wheel until the summit otherwise I would have struggled alone in the descent.
"If I stay with Contador until the last time trial, I think it will be enough to bring the yellow jersey back to Paris," added the Rabobank rider.
Australian Cadel Evans and Germany's Andreas Kloeden were unable to respond to Contador's violent burst of speed and they finished 56 seconds behind the pair.
Evans is third, four minutes adrift of Rasmussen, with American Levi Leipheimer fourth 1:25 further behind.
Vinokourov's team mate Kloeden is fifth, 5:34 off the pace.
"Yesterday, I had no strength. I told myself the Tour is over but I got the support of the whole team," said Vinokourov, who had been back in contention after winning Saturday's time trial in Albi.
The Kazakh, however, lost almost half an hour on Monday and crashed during the ascent of the Plateau-de-Beille.
"I said this morning that I wanted to give it a try. I knew the Col de Peyresourde very well."
Vinokourov, who now has five Tour stage victories to his name, was in the 24-man breakaway that built an advantage of 9:50 over the main pack.
The Kazakh, who suffered injuries to his knees during a crash in the first week, attacked at the bottom of the category-one climb and never looked back.
The peloton will rest on Wednesday before Thursday's hardest stage in the Pyrenees, a 218.5-km ride from Orthez to the Col d'Aubisque.
- REUTERS
