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High five, dude!

Discovery Channel’s stage 14 winner Alberto Contador was standing on thepodium atop Plateau de Beille before the gruppetto had crossed the finishline. Cadel Evans had already broken down into tears as he explained whyhe had exploded in the final kilometers of the climb, and race leader MichaelRasmussen was denying that adeal had been made between he and Contador to trade the stage win foradded time on stronger time-trialist GC contenders such as Evans and AndreasKlöden.Sunday’s stage 14, from French hero Laurent Jalabert’s home villageof Mazamet to the hors-catégorie summit finish at Plateau

Astraloza tries to catch the leaders on the final climb

Stage 15- Foix to Loudenvielle (196km)

A young U.S. photog with some very friendly Basques

Stage 15- Foix to Loudenvielle (196km)

Nice house; the garage is a mess, though

Contador outsprints the race leader

Sylvain Chavanel leads Hincapie

Davis gets the stage

Antonio Colom tows Klöden and Evans back up to the leaders

Massaglia gets the overall

Contador comes to the front with a pair of chickens in his wake

Vino's Tour is over

Fans applaud the laughing group on the final climb

But Contador's is just beginning

Helicopters signal the arrival of the leaders

Gorge-ous, no?

Vladimir Karpets leads Voigt

The break

Levi bears down and holds Sastre's wheel, with Solon behind

COURSE: Not a mountaintop finish, but this stage features five difficult Pyrenean climbs, including one new to the Tour, the frightening hors categorie Port de Balès. This is a very narrow, twisting 19km uphill, with the last 10km having an average grade of almost 10 percent and a maximum pitch of 14 percent. It precedes the 10.5km climb of the Col de Peyresourde just before the last, fast downhill to the finish. HISTORY: Two stages of the Tour have terminated at Loudenvielle. In 1997, Frenchman Laurent Brochard escaped from anelite group on the descent into Val Louron to finish 14 seconds

Millar driving the chase

Forty-one years' worth of musettes make a fine car cover

Results - Stage 14 (Mazamet Plateau-de-Beille)1. Alberto Contador (Sp), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 5:25:482. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), RABOBANK, s.t.3. Soler Hernandez Juan Mauricio (Col), BARLOWORLD, 0:374. Levi Leipheimer (USA), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 0:405. Carlos Sastre (Sp), TEAM CSC, 0:536. Andréas KlÖden (G), ASTANA, 1:527. Cadel Evans (Aus), PREDICTOR - LOTTO, 1:528. Antonio Colom (Sp), ASTANA, 2:239. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz), ASTANA, 2:2310. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 3:06 11. Michael Boogerd (Nl), RABOBANK, 3:0612. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI, 3:0613.

Popo' popped, but got back on and drove

Sastre leads Levi

Weather: Partly cloudy throughout most of the stage, with temperatures in the 70s in the flats and cooler on the summits, moderate winds on the summit. Stage winner: Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) confirmed his status as Spain’s next big star with his first Tour stage win of his career. Contador and Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) traded jabs on the HC Plateau de Beille and he darted ahead of the maillot jaune in the final 200m to take the victory. Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) came through third at 37 seconds back with Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) fourth at 40 seconds. Contador

Soler has a dig

Wegmann heads through a tunnel of fans

Michael Rasmussen's continued presence on the Tour de France, in the wake of revelations that he has missed several random doping controls in the past two years, is starting to grate with some teams. Rasmussen reinforced his grip on the race lead with another commanding climbing performance on the first of three days in the Pyrenees on Sunday. However for some, his march towards victory is an affront. "I'm angry," said Cofidis team manager Eric Boyer. Française des Jeux team manager Marc Madiot added: "I've gone past being angry. I just don't want to talk about it anymore.

Colom on his own

This morning's guests were very excited to meet the riders

Michael Rasmussen may be leading the Tour de France, but he’s not winning any friends in either the peloton or the court of public opinion. Rasmussen has fallen out of favor with fans, team managers and race officials after claiming he made an "administrative error" — by missing two random UCI doping controls — on March 24, 2006, and June 28, 2007. It later emerged that Rasmussen had also been warned twice by Denmark's anti-doping agency. And on Friday VeloNews.com reported on allegations by a former amateur mountain-bike racer that in 2002 Rasmussen attempted to trick him into bringing

Stage 14- Mazamet to Plateau de Beille (197km)

Fans head for their favorite places two hours before the start

Contador rode strongly, finishing seventh on the day

Stage 14- Mazamet to Plateau de Beille (197km)

Hincapie rolling along

Vino' and his boys are ready to put everyone in the pain cave

The gendarmerie is the peloton's own biker gang.

Does this man ever frown?

The podium

Vino' cranks out the winning ride

Kloden put in a stellar ride today

Kashechkin’s first generation BMC Time Machine.

Spectators perched high above Daban mountain.

Leipheimer wasn't quite up to snuff

BMC’s custom time-trial crank.

Rubiera and Ludewig lead the race.

What do moto drivers do in the rain? Catch up on their sleep

Kashechkin’s second generation BMC Time Machine.

COURSE: Following right after the time trial, this is the first of three demanding stages in the Pyrénées. It opens with an immediate 9km climb over the Black Mountains, but the first real obstacle is three hours down the road: the hors-catégorie Port de Pailhères climb (17km at 7.2 percent). Then, following a tumbling descent to Ax-les-Thermes, the riders race 16km down the Ariège valley before reaching the fi nishing climb to Plateau de Beille (16km at almost 8 percent). HISTORY: The only men to win Tour stages atop the Plateau de Beille have been Lance Armstrong (in 2002 and 2004) and

Chechu Rubiera takes out Stage 8.

Bet these guys have seen a few Tours

A good look at the new carbon fiber finish.

The Tour is one big moving circus. The smallest portion of the whole thing is the peloton; 180-or-so guys on bikes. Even when you add all of the staff and gear from the teams themselves that still only makes up only 10 percent of the Tour caravan. Add in journalists, police, publicity caravan, the dudes who put up the barriers... and you easily bump that to more than 5000 people who cover the Tour from start to finish. Some are more visible than others and some are taken for granted. Like the guys who put up the signs for race? When do they do that? Or the guy who paints the finish line

China's Haijun Ma became the new best Asian rider.

Rain, schmain: Vive le Tour! Allez, allez, allez!

The new seatpost.

The yellow jersey should take on a significantly more sporting hue on Sunday when the Tour de France peloton tackles the first of three stages in the feared Pyrénées mountains. Denmark's Michael Rasmussen has worn the race's fabled yellow jersey since his stage victory at Tignes in the French Alps last Sunday, but in recent days the Rabobank climber has been subject of doping suspicions. Following three days in the Alps, the race's 14th stage will herald the second segment of climbing in this year's race, and Sunday's 197km race from Mazamet to Plateau de Beille

Victory a virtual certainty for Gabriele Massaglia.

Is this a long race or what? I'm pooped

Another look at the new seatpost.

Results - Stage 13 (Albi - Albi)1. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kz), ASTANA, 1:06:342. Cadel Evans (Aus), PREDICTOR - LOTTO, 1:143. Andréas KlÖden (G), ASTANA, 1:394. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz), ASTANA, 1:445. Bradley Wiggins (GB), COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE, 2:146. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 2:167. Alberto Contador (Sp), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 2:188. Sylvain Chavanel (F), COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE, 2:389. Levi Leipheimer (USA), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 2:3910. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI, 2:42 11. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), RABOBANK, 2:5512. Vladimir Gusev (Rus),

Evans giving it the gas for second

Vino' ripping it up

Campagnolo’s time-trial shifter.

Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme said Saturday that organizers could have refused to allow Michael Rasmussen to compete in this year's race if they had known that he had missed several random doping tests in the past two years. The Danish Rabobank rider is leading the world's most prestigious cycling race. But it emerged this week that the Danish Cycling Union (DCU) decided in June not to select Rasmussen for September's world cycling championships and the Olympic Games in 2008 because he missed out-of-competition tests. Rasmussen has had several warnings from the UCI

Klöden takes third

Graham Watson checks to see if the rain has buggered his camera

Vino’s special Selle Italia saddle.

Weather: Rainy and cool in morning, early afternoon, highs in 60s; rain easing off in afternoon, 10kph northerly winds. Stage winner: Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) - who nearly abandoned after crashing hard on both knees in stage 5 - won in a remarkable display at 1:14 ahead of an equally impressive Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto). The victory was Vino’s fourth career Tour stage victory and his first Tour time trial. “For me, the Tour begins today,” he said. Race leader: Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) retained the yellow jersey after what he described as the best time trial of his life. The

Rasmussen tries to catch his breath after riding the ITT of his life

Vino' roars back to life

Astana’s Alexander Vinokourov continued an impressive comeback from injury, winning the 13th stage of the Tour de France to re-launch his yellow jersey hopes Saturday. Vinokourov, still nursing injured knees from his fall in the fifth stage, moved up to ninth overall at 5:10 behind leader Michael Rasmussen after claiming his fourth stage win and first ever time trial win on the Tour. Given his relative weakness in the race against the clock, Rabobank team leader Rasmussen was expected to relinquish the yellow jersey which he has worn since winning the second Alpine stage to Tignes last

Cancellara gets a close going over by TV shortly before crashing

Rasmussen turns in a strong defense of his yellow jersey

The first long individual time trial of the 2007 Tour de France, as always, provided a few surprises — not least of which was Michael Rasmussen's strong defense of his yellow jersey. Casey Gibson was on hand to capture all the action.

Contador blazing back to Albi