photo credits @ Twitter
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) underlined his Tour de France potential, after beating Nairo Quintana (Movistar) in todays stage 3 of the f the Route du Sud.
While there’s still another stage to go tomorrow, today’s 181km mountainous route from Izaourt to Bagneres-de-Luchon in the Pyrenees was always viewed as the decisive stage.
Contador attacked Quintana on the final climb of the day but although he could not drop him, Contador made the difference on the descent into the finish.
The Tinkoff-Saxo rider finished 13 seconds ahead of the Movistar leader, and thanks to the time bonuses, now leads in the overall classification by 17 seconds.
Meanwhile, the young French climber, Pierre-Roger Latour, took third place in today’s stage – and follows the leader at 41 seconds back.
Both riders surprised the cycling world, by entering the Route du Sud instead of traditional pre-Tour warm-up races the Criterium du Dauphine or Tour of Switzerland.
The Route du Sud signifies the final race for both riders, before the Tour de france, which gets underway on July 4 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Stage 3 Results ESP 1 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF – SAXO) 4:48:05 COL 2 QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander (MOVISTAR) + 13 FRA 3 LATOUR, Pierre-Roger (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 35 FRA 4 ROSSETTO, Stéphane (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) + 48 ARG 5 SEPULVEDA, Eduardo (BRETAGNE-SECHE ENVIRONNEMENT) COL 6 RUBIANO CHAVEZ, Miguel Angel (COLOMBIA) + 1:03
General Classification after Stage 3 ESP 1 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF – SAXO) 13:11:04 COL 2 QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander (MOVISTAR) + 17 FRA 3 LATOUR, Pierre-Roger (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 41 FRA 4 ROSSETTO, Stéphane (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) + 58 ARG 5 SEPULVEDA, Eduardo (BRETAGNE-SECHE ENVIRONNEMENT) COL 6 RUBIANO CHAVEZ, Miguel Angel (COLOMBIA) + 1:31 ESP 7 GALLEGO RUIZ, Alberto (RADIO POPULAR – BOAVISTA) + 2:08 FRA 8 LOUBET, Julien (TEAM MARSEILLE 13 KTM) + 3:06 POR 9 FIGUEIREDO, Federico (RADIO POPULAR – BOAVISTA) USA 10 BROWN, Nathan (CANNONDALE – GARMIN)
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