CYCLING TOUR DE FRANCE:THE CRACKS lurking within the Astana team came to the surface soon after stage 17 of the Tour de France ended last night. Once again Alberto Contador, the holder of the yellow jersey and the designated team leader, was criticised by Lance Armstrong, who is now supposed to be acting as his domestique, for mounting an attack that had not been in the squad's plans.
“I’m going to bite my tongue on that,” Armstrong said when asked about Contador’s decision to attack on Col de la Colombiere, the last of the day’s four first- category climbs. “No, I wasn’t expecting it,” he admitted. Their team manager, however, was more forthright. If Contador had held his fire, Johan Bruyneel said: “We could have been first, second and third in the general classification tonight.” Instead Armstrong and his team-mate Andreas Kloden fell from second and fifth to fourth and sixth places respectively. In most observers’ eyes they were the victims not so much of Contador’s aggression as of a concerted effort by the brothers Schleck, who made their move in what will probably turn out to have been this year’s toughest day in the mountains, even with the Mont Ventoux to come on Saturday.
Frank Schleck, at 29 the elder of the Luxembourg siblings, won a demanding stage, with the 24-year-old Andy close behind in third place. Between the two Saxo Bank riders came Contador, happy to concede the day’s laurels to a man who has no realistic hope of standing on the top step of the podium in Paris on Sunday. Andy, however, is another matter.
The younger brother, whom Contador considers his chief rival, was lying fifth in the overall standings at the start of yesterday’s 169.5km stage from Bourg Saint-Maurice to Le Grand Bornand, with Frank eighth. When it was all over, after the riders had pedalled up and down a wearying succession of four first-category climbs, they lay second and third, having successfully modified the aspirations of a group of star names in the process.
As well as the damage to Armstrong and Kloden, there were falls from third to sixth for Bradley Wiggins, and for Vincenzo Nibali from fourth to seventh. With the Schlecks and Contador, they formed the stage’s first seven.
The Tour had never been up the Col de Rommes before, perhaps because none of the officials who scout the race route had noticed it. Reached from a side road leading out of the small and undistinguished town of Cluses, it stands in the shadow of the Col de la Colombiere, an ascent that had featured on 17 previous occasions since 1960. No more than 8.5km long, it rises through wooded hills, twisting as it goes. The gradient, for most of the way, is a leg-breaking 10 per cent. Just the place for the attack mounted by the Schlecks, who took Contador and Kloden with them but quickly left the rest behind.
By the time they reached the top, their group of four had a minute’s lead over the quartet of Nibali, Wiggins, Armstrong and Christian Vande Velde.
Two kilometres from the top of the Colombiere, Contador made his attack. Straight away he opened a 30m gap, but no more. And while the Schlecks crept back towards him, his team-mate Kloden had dropped off the back of the group. Contador abandoned the assault and rejoined the brothers. Frank Schleck got his reward by crossing the line first.
For the second group, the top of the Colombiere was almost in sight when Armstrong accelerated away. Grim-faced, he pounded away to leave Wiggins trailing, although Nibali, a superb descender, caught up as they neared the finish and was allowed to take fourth place.
