Friday, March 13, 2009

Bang! - Alberto Contador Takes Control


Alberto Contador (Astana) crushed his opposition on the difficult mountain top finish in La Montagne de Lure to take over the yellow jersey from Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step). Contador left his last companions, Luis Leon Sanchez and Frank Schleck, less than five kilometres from the top and stormed to the finish 59 seconds ahead of them.

Chavanel lost almost two minutes on the snow-covered mountain and fell to third in the general classification, while Sanchez rode himself into second overall, 1:13 behind Contador.

For Contador the hard work of the team paid off. "We took control today. That was a day to make a difference."

Contador had lots of opponents on that last climb. "Luis Leon Sanchez and Frank Schleck were very strong. We also had a headwind."

Tony Martin (Team Columbia - Highroad) kept his polka dot jersey, while Mirco Lorenzetto (Lampre - N.G.C.) is still in the points jersey, just one point ahead of Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam).

General classification after stage 6
 
1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana 23.21.08
2 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 1.13
3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 1.24
4 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 1.38
5 Kevin Seeldrayers (Bel) Quick Step 2.01
6 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank 2.06
7 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 2.14
8 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Skil-Shimano 2.29
9 Antonio Colom (Spa) Team Katusha 2.35
10 Yury Trofimov (Rus) BBox Bouygues Telecom 3.09

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