Italian Vincenzo Nibali tightened his grip on the Tour de France yesterday, reclaiming the yellow jersey with a solo victory on Stage 10 as his main rival Alberto Contador abandoned the race after breaking his leg.
Astana rider Nibali, who is looking to complete his set of grand tour titles after winning the Vuelta and the Giro, attacked in the final climb, a brutal 5.9-kilometre ascent to La Planche des Belles Filles, and never looked back.
He overhauled lone escapee Joaquim Rodriguez in the final kilometre to win the stage by 15 seconds from Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, with Spaniard Alejandro Valverde third at 20 seconds.
The biggest news of the day, though, came halfway through the stage as the Tour lost its second star performer in under a week.
Following the withdrawal of reigning champion Chris Froome last Wednesday after breaking his left wrist and right hand in a succession of crashes over two days, it was Contador’s turn to fall badly during a descent.
“It was a very, very hard day, [teammate] Michele Scarponi did an incredible job,” said Nibali, who witnessed Contador’s crash.
“It happened in a descent, the asphalt was not in good condition. He was behind me but then passed me and three seconds later he fell off in front of me. It was spectacular, we were around 60kph.”
The peloton slowed down but when it became clear that Contador would not be rejoining the bunch, the pace upped again and the race went on.
His shirt and shorts torn, Contador, Tour winner in 2007 and 2009, sat on the side of the road to receive treatment from the race doctors as blood dripped from his right knee.
He got back to his bike and was being helped by his Tinkoff-Saxo teammates but, after climbing the Category 1 Col du Platzerwasel, Contador got off his bike again in thick fog and stepped into his team car as the tears started to flow.
Just before that he had received a consoling hug from Australian Michael Rogers, his chief lieutenant.
“Alberto crashed badly. The crash was violent. I have his shoe with me, it’s completely destroyed,” Contador’s sports director Philippe Mauduit said.
“According to some rumours, his bike was broken but that’s not the case. In a fraction of a second, it all fell apart, so we are immensely sad.”
“Alberto has a broken tibia. It’s not a bad fracture but he needs surgery,” said the Spaniard’s Tinkoff-Saxo team boss Bjarne Riis.
“He’s in a lot of pain and is getting stitches. Mentally he’s destroyed, of course. He was in the shape of his life. This was his Tour.”
Nibali leads Australian Richie Porte, who took over as Team Sky leader after Froome withdrew, by two minutes, 23 seconds.
“I think I was the only one to respond to Nibali’s attack at the end,” Porte told ITV4. “He has enough time already so you have to react, but I couldn’t stay with him.”
Valverde of the Movistar team is third overall, 2:47 off the pace.
France have three riders in fourth, fifth and sixth place overall in Romain Bardet, Tony Gallopin and Pinot.
* Reuters
