Casar triumphs but Contador still leads

FRANCE’S Sandy Casar won the 18th stage of the Tour de France between Cahors and Angouleme in a sprint finish yesterday.

The Francaise des Jeux rider was part of a four-man breakaway – alongside Laurent Lefevre (Bouygues Telecom), Axel Merckx (T-Mobile) and Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) – who escaped 14 kilometres into the 211km stage.

However, only Dutchman Boogerd made an impression on the overall lead. The Dutchman climbed from 16th at the start of the day to 13th place, 19 minutes 10 seconds behind leader Alberto Contador.

Discovery Channel team rider Contador, who inherited top spot following the expulsion of Denmark’s Michael Rasmussen by his Rabobank team, wore the yellow jersey for the first time on Stage 18.

The Spaniard retained the race lead with an advantage of 1min 53secs over Cadel Evans.

Original standings released by Tour organisers showed that Evans had reduced the deficit by three seconds but the figures were later readjusted to give Contador the same lead he had enjoyed at the start of the day.

The Australian is second ahead of today’s crucial 55.5km time-trial between Cognac and Angouleme – the Tour’s penultimate stage.

The stage came as a prelude to the time trial, with little movement among the leading protagonists for the overall crown as they both finished in the peloton. Discovery team manager Sean Yates insists Stage 19 will determine who tops the podium in Paris, due to the traditionally tight finish on the Champs Elysees.

He said: “We can’t take anything for granted. He (Contador) lost a minute at the first time-trial and it’s at the end of a three week tour, so anything can happen. I can’t imagine it’s going to be decided on the last day.”

Contador was 15th in the 7.9km prologue in London, one second ahead of Evans, who was 17th, while the Australian was second in Stage 13’s time trial in Albi.

He covered 54km in 1.07:48, 1:04 ahead of the Spaniard, who was seventh.

Boogerd, in his final Tour, was the only previous stage winner of the four escapees, having won in Aix-les-Bains in 1996 and at La Plagne in 2002.

He launched an escape at 14km alongside Lefevre, Casar and Frederick Willems (Liquigas).

Belgium’s Merckx pursued the four, but the peloton were content to let the escape go. Willems hit a dog – with Casar caught in the collision – and was absorbed by the chasing pack to leave Lefevre and Boogerd out in front alone with a 4:45 advantage at the 31km mark.

The pair opted to wait for Merckx and Casar before the quartet extended the lead to 10:10 at 56km, with a maximum gain of 17:30 at 152km.

Casar accelerated in the closing stages to cross the line first for a maiden Tour de France stage victory and the host nation’s second stage win of the 2007 event.

“I’m very happy with this stage victory,” said Casar, who is 69th in the overall classification. “I’ve been so close so many times.

“I wanted a good overall position but it doesn’t matter where I am in the overall standings as I was sick before the Tour.”