Defending Tour de France champion puts pressure on his rivals on the rainy climb and descent into Gap
Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) put in his first proper attacks of the 2011 Tour de France so far on the climb to the Col de Mande, on the way to the finish in of stage sixteen to Gap. Only Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) coud go with the defending champion and they stayed away on the rainy descent to finish ahead of their rivals in the race for the yellow jersey.
"I was very clear that I wanted to attack and I did not care who stuck to my wheel,” said Contador at the finish. “I knew that some would not be able to and the end it was better than expected."
While Evans managed to escape from Contador and Sanchez on the way down, but the two Spaniards worked together to limit his advantage to just three seconds by the time they reached the finish.
The important thing though, was that Contador took time out of all his other rivals, even if it was only a matter of seconds over some. Yellow jersey Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) finished in a group just eighteen seconds behind Contador. Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) though, lost 51 seconds to the Spaniard, while Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) finished 1’06” behind.
"This result is not spectacular," he conceded, "but more important is that my legs responded better and that always motivates the team and myself. There are still three more days of mountains and we will be attempting to exploit them."
Although the time gains were small over some of his rivals, they go some way to make up for the time Contador lost on the stage one crash on the way to the Mont des Alouettes. More importantly though, the knee pain that he experienced after a number of small crashes in the first week now seems to have gone.
“The most important were the sensations in my legs and that there have been no setbacks," he said. "My rivals are still the same as yesterday."
Starting the day four minutes down on Voeckler and, arguably more importantly two minutes behind Evans and the Schlecks, Contador has to try to take time back where he can. While the big mountain stages to the Col du Galibier and Alpe d’Huez are expected to see big battles between the favourites, the weather conditions and the technical descent suited the Saxo Bank-SunGard rider better than many of the others.
"It was very clear that this was a good day for attacks and wanted to try,” he explained. “I did not know how it would turn out, because the climb was not very demanding.
“I was already motivated, but this motivates me more," he added.