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Leading Contenders In Tour's Stages 9-12

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Leading Contenders In Tour's Stages 9-12
The contenders in the 2010 Tour de France have ridden four stages since the first of two rest days. In the 8th Stage, Cadel Evans took control of the yellow jersey, and the Tour was shaping up to look like a three-way battle between Evans, Andy Schleck, and Alberto Contador. But Stage 9 saw the demise of Evans as a leading contender, and he now stands at 18th overall.
"Obviously I wasn’t at the same level as I was in the Morzine-Avoriaz stage. I had a big crash six or seven kilometers into that stage and I’m experiencing the consequences in the 48 hours since then,” said Evans. “I think this Tour is over for the win.”
Schleck took the yellow jersey from Evans in Stage 9 and Contador climbed to 2nd place overall, where they’ve both remained over the last four stages. Also in the 9th Stage, the polka-dot jersey switched hands from Jerome Pineau to Anthony Charteau, starting an on-going trade-off of the "King of the Mountains" classification between the two Frenchmen, which looks to continue to the end of the race.
“Now I have the consolation of the polka-dot jersey, I think there will be a good battle with Jérôme Pineau,” said Charteau. “Theoretically he is faster than me on the climbs that are a little less difficult, but I was able to make the difference by gaining points on category-one and ‘hors category’ passes…”
Pineau took the jersey back the following day, but failed to perform in the five climbs of Stage 12. Charteau now holds a 16 point lead on the cyclist who has worn the jersey for nearly the entire Tour so far. The runner-up still stands 28 points ahead of Schleck, the third place climber, but with four mountain stages in the Pyrénées still to come, we may still see another contender enter the running.
Alessandro Petacchi has started a similar trade-off with Thor Hushovd’s green jersey. Hushovd will only allow his points classification opponent to take the lead for one day at a time. The Norwegian held the lead through Stages nine and ten, and took it back from the Italian in Stage 12 after first and second place finishes in the two intermediate sprints.
“The biggest threat to the green jersey is Petacchi, because he’s the closest on points but of course Cavendish is really fast now – I would say the fastest of us all – but he’s still a few points behind,” said Hushovd. “Still, I expect it to be a big battle until Paris.”
Mark Cavendish took his third stage win this year in Stage 11, breaking the record for most career sprint wins at the Tour de France, which was held by three cyclists including Robbie McEwen. McEwen stands in third place in the overall points classification, two spots ahead of Cavendish, and may have a chance to take back the record before the Tour is over.
“Now it’s about getting stage wins,” said Cavendish. “If the green jersey comes, it comes but it’s a great battle. Thor and Alessandro are great sprinters and it’s actually fun to watch that battle unfold.”
The 12th Stage cemented Schleck and Contador as the Tour leaders, and there will be little opportunity to dethrone them after this point. Schleck has held the yellow jersey now for four consecutive stages, and the white jersey for six. Contador is slowly closing the gap, while neither contender seems to be much interested in stage wins.
“Regarding the fight for the title between Contador and Schleck, I feel that the stages that are coming up are more favorable for Alberto,” said the Stage 12 winner Joaquim Rodriguez. “I also think Andy Schleck has already spent a lot of energy in the first part of the Tour. In my opinion, Alberto has the biggest chance for the final victory.”
But Schleck, ever cool and confident, is very much prepared for the challenge.
“The race went really fast right from the start this morning and, after a while, there was a group out there with riders who were quite close in the classification but I said to the team, ‘Right, we ride and we keep them at a certain limit, but the riders who are out there are ones who I’ll gain time on in the Pyrenees… so even if I lost the yellow jersey, it’s okay.' If one of them took the lead, I would not really have cared because I am still only aiming to have the yellow jersey in Paris.”

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