Contador rides a dream time trial

July 23, 2009

Contador rides a dream time trial

is always said that the last time trial of the tour is a day that the yellow jersey driver should take pride in winning and Alberto Contador came out on flying colors. He not only surprised everyone with a victory, but also increased his lead margin over Andy Schleck. He and Fabian Cancellara were the only two riders to have ridden the time trial with average speed above the 50 Kilometers per hour. He really left Olympic gold medalist clueless today.

The 18th stage of the tour started with mild weather conditions but it gave way to warm and sunny as the temperature climbed to early 30s. The first rider and last in the classification standing to start the time trial was Yauheni Hutarovich of team Francaise Des Jeux. There was one retirement in the form of Kenny van Hummel who had a crash in the stage 17.

The first to setup a quality time was Russian rider Mikhail Ignatiev of team Team Katusha although he started 19th in the time trial. He rode so well that even Fabian Cancellara could not beat this time at the first two intermediate checks. During the last part of the time trial there was a change in weather with 19 riders yet to take the time trial. The showers did not last long and it was quite dry by the time general classification riders started.

There were some impressive performances by Cadel Evans of Team Silence Lotto, Christophe Moreau of Agritubel and Bradley Wiggins of Garmin – Slipstream. There was not change in any of the jersey standings. Lance climbed up in the overall standings to third place with best young driver Andy in second.