Alberto Contador gained an important 10 seconds on Andy Schleck yesterday reduceng his lead to 31 seconds when he broke away on the Montée Laurent Jalabert (a famous French cyclist now retired when won the first Tour stage run up this short, steep hill to the airport of Mende). This is the first attack Contador has made during this year's Tour and on this occasion Schleck couldn't stay with him. Whether it will be the same in Pyrénées we will know over the next few days – starting on tomorrow. The forecast for Sunday and Monday shows temperatures around 30˚C.
Ten seconds isn't all that much and Schleck did well to limit his losses but it gives Contador the advantage for the moment. and yesterday he looked back to his best. Alberto is a way better time triallist than Andy. Alberto won the Annecy TT in last year's Tour and took 1.45 min out of Andy in 40K. This year's time trial, the penultimate stage, from Bordeaux to Pauillac is 52K and is essentially dead flat for these top riders. It should suit the powerful Contador more than it does Schleck, unless his time trialling has improved greatly. This looks unlikely as he rode a poor Prologue in Rotterdam.
Going into next Saturday's TT I reckon Schleck needs to have at least at least two minutes advantage on Contador. Anything less and Alberto is likely to take the Yellow Jersey and win the race.
Tyler Farrar, one of Mark Cavendish's sprint rival, dropped out of the race yesterday suffering from a wrist injury that happened in a crash on Stage 2 in the Ardennes.
From the forecast it looks like today's stage may be a bit cooler with temperatures around the mid to upper 20s. The 196K stage from Rodez to Revel is quite lumpy, although less than yesterday. It four 4th Category climbs and two 3rd Category. The second of the 3rds comes very close to the end – 1.9K at 6%, so it's short and pretty steep. It might be a sprinters' stage as it is the last chance before Bordeaux, next Friday. The climb right at the end makes it difficult, however, and I'm not sure the sprinters' teams will want to ride hard all day with four very tough stages in the Pyrénées looming. My guess is that a breakaway will be successful today.
From the forecast it looks like today's stage may be a bit cooler with temperatures around the mid to upper 20s. The 196K stage from Rodez to Revel is quite lumpy, although less than yesterday. It four 4th Category climbs and two 3rd Category. The second of the 3rds comes very close to the end – 1.9K at 6%, so it's short and pretty steep. It might be a sprinters' stage as it is the last chance before Bordeaux, next Friday. The climb right at the end makes it difficult, however, and I'm not sure the sprinters' teams will want to ride hard all day with four very tough stages in the Pyrénées looming. My guess is that a breakaway will be successful today.
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