Contador leads tarnished Tour
The Lampre sprinter cruised over the finishing line after a game of cat-and-mouse with trio Jens Voigt, Martin Elmiger and Markus Fothen, who were part of a decisive breakaway just 13 kilometres into the race.
The quartet had featured in an eight-man attack, which included fifth-placed Briton David Millar, before they pulled clear in the closing stages.
At the end of yesterday’s stage Spain’s Alberto Contador was presented with the yellow jersey as he maintained his one minute and 53 seconds lead over Australia’s Cadel Evans with three days remaining.
No one had started the day with the coveted yellow jersey. Overnight leader Michael
Rasmussen had been sacked by his Rabobank team — and thus removed from the race — for his failure to inform them of his whereabouts in the build-up to the Tour.
Rasmussen had earlier vented his spleen to Danish newspaper BT and denied reports that he had been in Italy rather than Mexico as had been claimed.
Rasmussen said: “I was not in Italy — not at all. It’s the story of a man who thinks he recognised me and there’s not a shred of proof. This is all madness.”
Rasmussen’s failure to fully disclose his plans had frustrated dope testers. The Dane’s dismissal from the Tour heaped further scandal on a race already reeling from the expulsions of pre-race favourite Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan and Cristian Moreni of Italy, who had failed dope tests. Their respective teams, Astana and Cofidis, also left the race.
A delighted Bennati was thrilled by his stage victory, but acknowledged the day was overshadowed by the doping scandals.
The Italian said: “I’m very happy with this victory. It’s one of the best rides I’ve ever had. It was pretty hard because we broke away so early. I really hope that this Tour will solve all these problems as the people who follow it don’t deserve it.
“We need to go on and we need to do this for all the people who believe in this sport and for the sport itself.”
With a black cloud hanging over the Tour and question marks as to its credibility, the 142 riders still involved in the proceedings set off from Pau in reflective mood.
It did not take long for a group of eight to attack the peloton and build a two-minute lead over the 188.5km of flat roads after the Pyrenees mountain terrain of the last three days.
The peloton was in no mood to chase down the breakaway group as they built the lead to a staggering eight minutes with just 20km to the finish. But four kilometres later, the leading eight had been whittled down to four as Millar and another struggling trio failed to keep up with an attack from German CSC rider Voigt.
The leading quartet continued to up the tempo in the closing stages but no one could keep hold of Bennati’s wheel as he kicked in with just 300 metres remaining to claim glory.
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