Tour de France: Alberto Contador wins stage 14

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Alberto Contador of Spain has won stage 14 of the 2007 Tour de France. Michael Rasmussen of Denmark came in second and extended his overall lead by 2' 04' over Cadel Evans of Australia. Contador moves into second ahead of Evans and 2' 23" behind Rasmussen.

Contador and Rasmussen had an animated discussion about how to share the workload up the final climb. Contador was happy to sit behind the yellow jersey-wearing Rasmussen, and pass him in the final sprint for the finish-line. The Dane had hoped for more help in setting the pace and extending his overall lead.

The winner of yesterday's time trial, Alexandre Vinokourov, did not have a good day. Andreas Klöden will likely now be the leader for Astana Team.

This stage took the race into the Pyrenees. This stage starts with a category 2 climb out of Mazamet and then follows a relatively calm route via Carcassonne, Limoux and Quillan before taking on the Port de Pailhères (17 km at 7.2%) and a very difficult finish at Plateau-de-Beille (16 km at 7.9%).

Tomorrow's 196 km stage should be one of the major stages of the Tour, with no fewer than five major mountain passes - including the Col de Port, the Col de Portet d'Aspet (5.7 km climb at 6.9%), the Col de Menté (7.0 km climb at 8.1%), the Port de Balès (19.5 km at 6.2%), (the first time this climb has featured in the Tour), and finally the Col de Peyresourde (9.7 km climb at 7.8%) with a downhill finish in Loudenvielle. This exhausting stage will be followed by a day of rest.

Post-race statements

Stage 14 results

RankRiderTeamTime1Alberto ContadorDiscovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 5h 25'48"2Michael RasmussenRabobank s.t."3 Mauricio SolerBarloworld +37"4 Levi LeipheimerDiscovery Channel Pro Cycling Team +40"5Carlos SastreTeam CSC +53"6Andreas KlödenAstana Team +1'52"7 Cadel EvansPredictor-Lotto s.t."8Antonio ColomAstana Team +2'23"9Andrey KashechkinAstana Team s.t."10 Yaroslav PopovychDiscovery Channel Pro Cycling Team +3'06"

General classification after stage 14

RankRiderTeamTime1Michael RasmussenRabobank 64h 12' 15"2Alberto ContadorDiscovery Channel Pro Cycling Team +2' 23"3Cadel EvansPredictor-Lotto +3' 04"4Levi LeipheimerDiscovery Channel Pro Cycling Team +4' 29"5 Andreas KlödenAstana Team +4' 38"6Carlos SastreTeam CSC +5' 50"7Andrey KashechkinAstana Team +6' 58"8 Mikel AstarlozaEuskaltel-Euskadi +8' 25"9 Alejandro ValverdeCaisse d'Epargne +9' 45"10 Yaroslav PopovychDiscovery Channel Pro Cycling Team +10' 55"