Stage eighteen of the Tour de France, between Pinerolo and the Col du Galibier, saw a something seldom seen since his incredible run of Grand Tour victories began: Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) was dropped on a mountain. The defending champion, who has won every Grand Tour he entered since winning the 2007 edition of the Tour, was unable to hold the pace set by Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) on the Galibier as the group of race favourites pursued the lone attack of Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek).
“I had a bad day,” said Contador after the stage. “I had no power on the last 10 kilometres. I felt incredibly worn out and don't know why."
The previous two stages, into Gap and Pinerolo, saw Contador attacking in the final climbs, indicating that the knee he injured in several first week crashes had recovered. This was a different problem though, when his legs simply refused to respond.
“I don't know what it was but the last few kilometres were really tough,” he continued. “It was easy enough to stay on the wheel on the first part of Galibier but I wasn't able to attack and ride like I wanted to.”
After losing 3’50” to Schleck – and more than a minute and half to Evans, Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Schleck’s elder brother and teammate Fränk – Contador now trails Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) by 4’44”. His bid to win a third straight Tour, and fourth in all, as well as become the first rider to do the Giro d’Italia/Tour de France double since Marco Pantani in 1998 is over.
“It is practically impossible,” he admitted.
Andy Schleck's attacked with 5km to go on the penultimate climb of the Col d’Izoard, with 60km still to race. Contador was confident that the Luxembourg rider would be caught, but by using teammates Joost Posthuma and Maxime Monfort, who’d been in the early breakaway, he managed to stay away, and almost took the yellow jersey.
“I thought we would gain time on him but he played his cards and teammates just right,” Contador conceded. “His tactics proved to prevail and we must congratulate him on a job well done.”
Evans took over personal control of the front of the peloton with more than 10km remaining, and asked for no help from those on his wheel. The Australian managed to reduce a deficit of more than four minutes to just over two at thie finish.
“He has done an incredible work and took the responsibility,” Acknowledged Contador. “The important thing now is to recover and fill up the reserves with energy because I've run flat.
“We have to think about tomorrow and rest well knowing I've been through different situations and the truth is that this is not the saddest day of my life.”
While Contador may be out of the running for yellow in Paris, the race is far from over. Andy Schleck now trails Voeckler by just 15 seconds, with Fränk at 1’08” and Evans at 1’12”. In tomorrow’s nineteenth stage the peloton will have to cross the Galibier again, in the opposite direction this time, on the road to Alpe d’Huez.
“Andy has proven to be very strong,” said Contador. “I think it's possible to gain on him again but he has a solid lead and I think he can maintain it.”
With Evans the superior time triallist of the top men though, the others will surely need to do something special to rid themselves of the former World champion tomorrow.