65届，环巴黎-耐斯比赛，法国

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Stage 4 - March 15: Maurs - Mende, 169.5 km

Contador keeps Saiz' legacy running in Mende

Rebellin assumes leader's jersey

By Jean-François Quénet in Mende

Spanish Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel/Usa)
Photo ©: AFP

Discovery Channel's Alberto Contador has won Stage 4 which finished at the top of the famous "montée Laurent Jalabert" in Mende, but the 17 seconds he lost in the split of the bunch in Limoges cost him the yellow jersey that now sits on the shoulders of today's runner up Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner).

"I was targeting the yellow jersey in first place," Contador explained. "I thought that winning the stage would be enough for taking the lead, but I forgot that someone like Rebellin was in such a good form. Now he has become the man to beat. There's still space to attack until Nice. We'll study the course and see what is the best place for an attack."

That is exactly what Rebellin fears. "Contador was very strong," said the Italian. "I wasn't able to go with him, so I kept him 50 meters away. It's been a good day for me, but it's not over. There are three other hard stages. I came here to win, and I feel strong enough for doing so but it's still hard to beat teams like Discovery and CSC. I also have a good team but we'll have to look carefully at every attack."

Gerolsteiner might be the only pro cycling team other than Bouygues Telecom still awaiting its first win of the year, the team has a very motivated group of guys including Australian-born Heinrich Haussler who still wears the polka dot jersey.

"But we'll first focus on helping Rebellin for GC, then we'll see if it still a good thing to defend this jersey," Haussler told Cyclingnews on the start line in Maurs-la-Jolie. He'll probably forget about that after today's stage and keep his energy in defense of Rebellin's yellow jersey.

For a while, the hero of the day was Sandy Casar. The Frenchman who finished sixth in last year's Tour of Italy went off the front with his compatriot Amaël Moinard and Kazakhstan's Dimitri Muravyev. But often typical intra-French team discord ruled, and Didier Rous led the Bouygues Telecom charge against Française des Jeux and Cofidis. Rous set a roaring pace at the front of the bunch.

"Why did they ride so early? I don't understand them," said a bitter Moinard said. "Bouygues Telecom's leader Jérôme Pineau crossed the line in 11th position..."

Italian Davide Rebellin (Geroslteiner) and Spain's Alberto Contador (Right) (Discovery Channel)
Photo ©: AFP

In fact, a long history of Rous vs. Francaise des Jeux exists in this region. In 2001, at Midi Libre, prior to the same uphill finish at La Croix-Neuve, Rous couldn't stand the presence of Bradley McGee in the breakaway the day after the Sydney rider won in Laissac. He reacted by going in a crazy solo effort, but the stage winner at the end of the day was McGee's team-mate Sven Montgomery. The next day, Rous organized a group of rebels, consisting of former Festina riders and other racers from the southwest of France with the goal of making Francaise des Jeux lose the overall. Indeed, they managed a win for Iban Mayo.

Once again, Rous' behavior favored a Spanish win, and Contador took the honors in Mende. "This hill suited me a lot," the winner said. "It was similar to the Alto del Campillo where I won during the Tour of Valencia." With 30 kilometers to go, Levi Leipheimer gave him the responsibility of the lead inside the Discovery Channel team. "I feel like a leader in this team although I'm a new one," said Contador.

Contador comes from the school of Manolo Saiz just like most of the winners in Mende. This history began with the ONCE attempt to put an end to Miguel Indurain's reign in the 1995 Tour de France. Because Laurent Jalabert triumphed at the top of La Croix-Neuve, the climb was re-named after the Frenchman when the Tour de France returned to Mende in 2005. Contador finished 52nd that day, as his companion at Liberty Seguros, Marcos Serrano, won the stage.

Contador, only 24-years-old, doesn't have the yellow jersey for now, and the white one of the best young rider classification isn't enough for his ambitions. It looks like going to be an exciting end of Paris-Nice with former leader Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas), finishing 10th at 40 seconds today, not yet having given his last word.

How it unfolded

The peloton
Photo ©: AFP

Soon after the start, without Thierry Marichal (Française des Jeux) due to his implication in a doping affair in Belgium in 1997, a group of 17 riders went away, but too many teams went unrepresented at the front. On the downhill after the first climb of the day, Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux) broke clear. For awhile, he didn't get more than 10 seconds but he persisted. Amaël Moinard (Cofidis) and Dimitri Muravyev (Astana) then joined him.

After many fights, the bunch decided to relax, and the three men away reached a maximum lead of 11 minutes at km 70. It was reduced to around six minutes when the teams Discovery Channel and Bouygues Telecom took over from Liquigas at the front of the peloton. Didier Rous was the most active rider. He showed huge motivation for catching his compatriots in the lead.

They had less than a one minute advantage at the bottom of the final hill of La Croix-Neuve in Mende. Muravyev was the first to drop off. The last one, Casar, got caught under the red flag when Contador placed an attack after riding behind Tadej Valjavec (Lampre). Rebellin chose not to put himself in the red; he let Contador go at first and then almost rejoined him on the finishing line, therefore coming close enough to secure the yellow jersey.

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[ 本帖最后由 活佛 于 2007-3-16 17:23 编辑 ]

傻瓜&安娜

不错不错，全是好东东啊啊，口水啊，济南有这样的赛段爽了