Dane Michael Rasmussen took an important step towards overall victory in the Tour de France with an easy win on the 16th stage, a 218,5km ride from Orthez in the Pyrenees on Wednesday.
The Rabobank rider beat Discovery Channel’s Levi Leipheimer of the United States by 26 seconds to retain the leader’s yellow jersey.
Spaniard Alberto Contador, also of the Discovery Channel team, came home third 35 seconds behind Rasmussen and is 3:10 adrift of the Dane in the overall standings.
Contador now faces a huge task heading into Saturday’s decisive time trial from Cognac to Angouleme. The Tour finishes in Paris on Sunday.
Juan Mauricio Soler, who finished in fifth place, took the polka-dot jersey for best climber after breaking away early in the stage.
The start of the stage was delayed by 10 minutes after riders from the six French and two German teams protested against doping in the sport, one day after it was announced Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov had tested positive for blood-doping.
His Astana team subsequently left the Tour.
Meanwhile, Italian Cristian Moreni of the Cofidis team tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone on the Tour, race organisers said on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old Moreni, Italian champion in 2004, failed a dope test after last Thursday’s 11th stage from Marseille to Montpellier.
Moreni is the second Tour rider to fail a drugs test following Vinokourov. — Reuters