MENDE, France - Alberto Contador fired a warning shot at yellow jersey rival Andy Schleck on Friday with a daring attack that allowed him to steal precious seconds off the Tour de France race leader. In store today was a new climb to the Tour, the cat-1 Hourquette d'Ancizan.
Stage 12 took the riders from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden over two very big climbs before a mountain-top finish. 176 riders took to the start after Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil) did not start.
But a quick glance at Schleck less than halfway up told the Spaniard he had to take his chance - although what looked like a promising attack allowed him to steal only 10sec off his main rival.
The bunch was thinned out significantly over the Col du Tourmalet and was almost thinned out even more on the descent of the Col. The big name and highest placed rider in that group was Geraint Thomas (Sky Pro Cycling).
The oldest of the Schleck brothers eventually established a gap with 2km to go and finished third, with Evans and Andy Schleck close behind, as Thomas Voeckler's lead was cut in the overall standings. They had a high advantage of around 7 minutes.
The big name in the final two kilometers today, was indeed Frank Schleck of Leopard Trek.
This stage, however, was always going to be about that final, unclassified climb. As the brothers usually do, one puts in a short attack and then the other makes a move for the stage win and or to gain time on other overall classification rivals. Although Frank finished third behind, Samuel Sanchez and Jelle Vanendert, he was the big overall racer who made his attack.
"I was not able to deliver as much as I would have loved to, but I'm still satisfied by this result," Contador told reporters.
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Sammy Sanchez of Euskaltel Euskadi and Jelle Vanendert of Omega Pharma-Lotto has established a solid break that would not be caught, but the real interest was in what was happening behind them. Contador's Astana teammate Alexandre Vinokourov was third.
Surprisingly, Liquigas riders Ivan Basso and Sylvester Szmyd came forward and really turned up the pace thinning out the remaining bunch until only the cream of the crop remained.
The 210-km stage was won by Spain's Joaquin Rodriguez, who outsprinted his illustrious compatriot and defending champion to claim a victory in his first appearance in cycling's most famous race.
But Contador was the other big winner on the day as he rode away from Schleck on the steep three kilometer climb towards Mende which concluded the day's proceedings.
First Andy accelerated, drawing an immediate response from Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador and Basso and then it was immediately followed by a counter-puch from Frank Schleck.
Third place went to Contador's Kazakh teammate Alexandre Vinokourouv, a survivor of a breakaway group that went away after 60 kilometers.
It was almost as if Frank had snuck away without being seen. Thomas was fine and quickly got back on his bike and continued the descent. However, just a little bit down the road, when Thomas was descending and attempting to regain contact with the breakaway, again his back wheel locked up and again he went into the grassy areas. Andreas Kloden was also involved in this incident. Voeckler eventually switched his bike before working back up to the peloton.
Starting the Tourmalet, the leading four riders had a 49 second gap to Thomas and Gutierrez. Chavanel and Kreuziger were 3.
Contador is a significant amount of time behind his main opposition and he was widely expected to make a move to recover some of that time today.
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