Alberto Contador has not only won the second of two individual time trials in stage 18 of the 2009 Tour de France, but has all but confirmed his yellow jersey victory for the podium in Paris later this week.
The 40.5km stage 18 around Annecy was a mostly flat, easy individual time trial which emphasised speed. Rain which threatened to come late did not eventuate for the most part, allowing the main contenders to jockey for position in general classifications with no hindrances.
Russian Mikhail Ignatiev of Team Katusha was the best of the early starters, setting a mark of 48 minutes and 45 seconds. Bert Grabsch of Team Columbia-HTC, who had gone out just after Ignatiev and had looked like he might catch the Russian, finished behind him and it was those two times which lead all comers for a significant part of the day.
Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss rider of Team Saxo Bank who was the winner of the first individual time trial of this year’s Tour de France, trailed Ignatiev on the circuit at the various time checks, but took the lead by 12 seconds by posting a time of 48:33.
Then it was the turn of Wiggins, who had lost his podium position yesterday to the Schleck brothers of Team Astana, posted the best times halfway through the course but fell away to finish with a time of 49:13.
The Briton Wiggins of the Garmin-Slipstream team started the day nine seconds behind Andreas Klöden of Astana, but the German Klöden could only finish 13 seconds behind Wiggins to give up his spot in the general classification. Lance Armstrong of Astana then finished on 50 minutes flat, putting him 13 seconds ahead of Wiggins on GC.
Contador then proved his champion quality by coming over the line two and a half seconds ahead of Cancellara, and with only one realistic chance for his challengers to make up his lead of over four minutes in the second-last stage the day after tomorrow, the Spaniard can almost start celebrating now.
Top stage 18 results
1 Alberto Contador (Astana) 48.40
2 Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) 0:03 behind
3 Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) 0:15
4 Gustav Erik Larsson (Saxo Bank) 0:33
5 David Millar (Garmin) 0:40
6 Bradley Wiggins (Garmin) 0:42
General classification
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 73:15:39
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 4:11 behind
3 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 5:25
4 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 5:36
5 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 5:38
6 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 5:59
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 7:15
8 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 10:08
9 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 12:38
10 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 12:41
11 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha 13:36
12 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 14:08
13 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 14:37
14 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 15:26
15 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 15:27
16 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 19:47
17 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Silence - Lotto 19:49
18 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Team Katusha 24:26
19 Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 25:58
20 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 27:05
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