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Alberto Contador solidifies his grip on the yellow jersey in Thursday's Stage 18 Time Trial at the Tour de France. Casey Gibson was there.

Forty-five minutes after Thursday’s stage, Fabian Cancellara was sitting in the lobby of Hotel Impérial Palace along the shores of Lake Annecy trying to figure out how he lost the 40.5km time trial to Alberto Contador. The reigning Olympic time trial champion doesn’t lose against the clock very often when he’s on form, and Cancellara said he had a pretty good idea of why he lost.

Lance Armstrong admitted suffering during Thursday's time trial in the Tour de France, but says his aim now is to defend his third place in the overall standings in Saturday's climb up Mount Ventoux and even mount a challenge for second against Andy Schleck. Armstrong finished the time trial around Lake Annecy in 16th at 1:30 behind stage winner Alberto Contador, his Astana teammate and the yellow jersey-holder. The American said his goal is to ride well on Ventoux, protect on his spot on GC or even move up on his rival for second place, Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck.

Tour de France race leader Alberto Contador on Thursday refused to respond to questions relating to his stunning climbing performance in the 15th stage and Thursday’s time trial victory. Spain's 2007 champion took another step towards overall victory when he won the 18th stage time trial to take a virtually unassailable lead of 4:11 over Luxembourg's Andy Schleck. Coming less than a week after his impressive victory on the summit of Verbier in Switzerland, it has cemented Contador's reputation as the best stage racer in the world.

News that Danilo Di Luca tested positive for CERA during the recent Giro d’Italia was met with universal disdain among most at the Tour de France. The Italian tested positive for the banned blood booster, CERA, en route to finishing second to Denis Menchov (Rabobank) at the Giro in May, the UCI confirmed. If Di Luca’s B-sample is confirmed, he could be banned for two years and stripped of his second place and stage victories during the three-week Italian grand tour.

Going into this year's Tour, a small, gnawing uncertainty lingered — would stricter enforcement of UCI rules cause start-line drama for any teams or riders? Cycling’s international governing body issued a statement in May indicating they would take a hard line. Specifically, aero bars and seatposts would be carefully measured for compliance with UCI rules.

Team RadioShack: Armstrong's ProTour squad for 2010

Lance Armstrong’s new team will be Team RadioShack for the 2010 season and beyond. RadioShack Corporation will form an American ProTour team, and, beginning next year, Lance Armstrong will compete for Team RadioShack "as a cyclist, runner and triathlete," the company announced in a press release. Armstrong will continue to promote his LiveStrong Foundation with RadioShack.

Yellow jersey Alberto Contador flew around the 40.5km Annecy time trial course to win the stage and cement his lead in the Tour de France. Contador beat time trial specialist Fabian Cancellara by two seconds, and put 50 seconds or more on the other GC competitors, including teammates Andreas Klöden and Lance Armstrong. Contador was fastest through all but one of the intermediate time checks, making his biggest gains on the course’s one climb, and holding his advantage to the end.

Evelyn Stevens (Webcor Builders) on Wednesday continued her surprise domination of domestic women's racing, taking a second consecutive stage win, this time with a solo attack from the bottom of the final climb. In the men's race, Rock Racing's Oscar Sevilla, a former Tour de France Best Young Rider, soloed across the line seven seconds ahead of Peter Stetina (Felt Holowesko-Garmin), taking over the leader's jersey from stage 1 winner Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell).

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From truckloads full of young fans, packed in like cattle, to a cadre of elite mountain troops, the fans came out to see the Tour's toughest stage on Wednesday, and VeloNews photographer Casey B. Gibson was there to capture the scene.

Alberto Contador attacked once on the Col de la Colombière near the end of Wednesday’s queen stage, but it didn’t make anyone happy on the Astana Team. Contador’s surge with about 2km to go to the Colombière didn’t gap the victorious Schleck brothers, but it popped Astana’s Andreas Klöden out of the back of the elite, four-man group. Klöden eventually lost 2:27 to the Schlecks and opened the door for the Schlecks to slip into second and third.

After the most difficult mountain stage of this Tour de France, Alberto Contador appears to have wrapped up his second overall victory in three years. But the fight for the other two podium places will continue Thursday in the stage 18 time trial at Annecy — before being wrapped up on the Mont Ventoux summit Saturday. Five men still have hopes of joining Contador on the podium: his two Astana teammates Lance Armstrong and Andreas Klöden, Saxo Bank’s Andy and Fränk Schleck, and Garmin-Slipstream’s Brad Wiggins.

Tour de France crash victim Jens Voigt has been told he will have to wait for a decision on whether he faces surgery on his smashed cheekbone, his Saxo Bank team announced Wednesday. The 37-year-old was temporarily knocked unconscious after a high speed crash during the race's 16th stage from Martigny in Switzerland to Bourg Saint Maurice on Tuesday. After being revived at the scene the German veteran was flown by helicopter to hospital in Grenoble where he was diagnosed with a broken cheekbone and heavy concussion.

Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) heard the comments from arch-rival Mark Cavendish about how the big Viking needed to DQ the British sprinter to have any chance to win the green jersey. The tension was ratcheting up even since the stage to Besançon when Cavendish was relegated for irregular sprinting in the bunch sprint for 13th place. That UCI jury decision essentially gifted Hushovd the green jersey. But the Cervélo sprinter was too proud to take it that way.