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Contador’s shot across the bow: Yellow jersey attack falls short, but sends a signal
Alberto Contador just couldn’t help himself on the beyond-category steeps of the Arcalis summit high in the Pyrénées in Friday’s seventh stage. The 26-year-old is a natural born climber and, when he sees a road turn uphill, he’s going to do one thing: attack, even if that means attacking Astana teammate Lance Armstrong and defying team orders. “There were no instructions from the car (to attack),” said Astana team boss Johan Bruyneel. “We wanted to try to maintain our collective strength and wait for the attacks to come. Those attacks didn’t come.”
Inside the Tour – Watch for surprises this weekend
Just five teams are still in contention to deliver the winner of this excruciatingly tense 96th Tour de France. And these five do not include Ag2r-La Mondiale, the French team of the new race leader Rinaldo Nocentini. He was far from being the strongest man in Friday’s successful long-shot breakaway and he will certainly fall back into the ranks on Saturday.
A Casey Gibson Gallery – Into the mountains
After a spectacular morning start in downtown Barcelona, the Tour de France moved into the even more spectacular Pyrenees. Casey Gibson was there to follow all of the action
VeloNews: Armstrong says Contador attack was unplanned
Beginners’ luck? Tour rookies Nocentini, Feillu make most of day
Two Tour de France rookies on opposite ends of their careers hogged the spotlight Friday in the Pyrénées. While the GC favorites marked each other up the Tour’s first of three summit finishes, Brice Feillu and Rinaldo Nocentini took full advantage of the opportunity. Feillu, 23, best-known as the younger brother of sprinter Romain Feillu, attacked out of a nine-man breakaway to win France’s second stage in three days while Nocentini, 31, an Italian roulleur familiar to American fans for his stage victory during this year’s Tour of California, snagged the yellow jersey.
Tour celebrates another French win
It usually takes a highly-publicized doping scandal to bring Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme to the brink of tears. But on Friday it was 24-year-old debutant Brice Feillu, giving the hosts their second stage victory of the race, who brought the emotions flooding out after an impressive ride to victory on the first day in the mountains. Feillu, a specialist climber who rides for Agritubel with his brother Romain, took his chance by attacking his small group of breakaway companions inside the final 6km of the 10.1km climb to Arcalis.
Feillu wins stage 7, Nocentini grabs yellow and Contador asserts supremacy
Agritubel’s Brice Feillu attacked his daylong breakaway companions to a stage win atop the hors catégorie Andorre Arcalis, as Astana’s Alberto Contador rocketed away from the main group to put time into his rivals for the overall. Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r), who joined Feillu in the day’s big breakaway, held on to finish in between Feillu and Contador to take the yellow jersey.
New series offers Northeast mountain goats a lofty goal. Or nine.
#ad-in-article {display: none;}New Hampshire's Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb has long enjoyed the reputation as the toughest hour (or two) on two wheels. The race to the top of "The Rockpile," rising an unrelenting 4,720 feet in 7.6 miles, with an average grade of 12 percent and some hellish sections as steep as 22 percent, is the ultimate test of legs, lungs and willpower.
Now, double that effort. Better yet, how about tackling nine races, in four different Northeast states, totaling 27,000 feet of climbing?
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Breck Epic’s fifth day serves up high altitude suffering
Gasps for air and the occasional clank of mountain bikes were the only sounds heard during the 45-minute hike-a-bike up the final pitch of the Wheeler Loop to the top of Breckenridge ski area. The steep section of the Colorado Trail, which on Thursday hosted the fifth stage of the inaugural Breck Epic stage race, soared from tree line to 12,400 feet. The trail was too narrow and steep for most riders to pedal, so they queued up to push their bikes. And in the thin Colorado air, deep breathing quickly turned to gasps.
Evans reveals good form with aggresive riding into Barcelona
A soaked but otherwise happy Cadel Evans indicated he is ready to meet his Tour de France rivals head on when the race heads for its first summit finish in the Pyrenees on Friday. However Australia's two-time runner-up faces a bigger test than the slippery roads which led the peloton from Girona to Barcelona on Thursday, on which compatriot Michael Rogers almost saw his Tour end prematurely. Evans had joined the frontrunners in pursuit of Garmin-Slipstream's David Millar, who was caught inside two kilometers, having attacked solo a three-man breakaway with 29km to race.