It’s official: Alberto Contador will be crowned Tour de France champion this Sunday for the second time in three years.
Only a miracle can stop the skinny Spaniard keeping the maillot jaune in his home country for the fourth year in succession as those best placed to usurp him all happen to be his team-mates.
Armstrong had been widely tipped to make a successful return to the sport he has monopolised in the past but even he admits that the chase is up and the best he can hope for his runner-up; “I think today he (Contador) demonstrated he is the strongest man in the race,” said the Texan who now trails by 1:37 in second place.
Last Sunday’s 15th stage to the mountaintop summit finish of Verbiers in the Swiss Alps was where Contador launched his devastating attack 5.7km from the top, distancing himself from his main rivals and proving that at his best, he is untouchable.
Crucially for Contador, he has been given Armstrong’s undivided attention for the remainder of the Tour and the tension that existed between the two last week has since been eased. "We are ready to sacrifice everything to have Alberto in the yellow jersey in Paris, the teams standings and Lance's second place," Astana sports director Alain Gallopin said yesterday.
Despite Contador’s seemingly unassailable lead and Astana’s ability to control the race, several riders still harbour ambitions of yellow and Andy Shleck is one rider who Astana need to monitor very closely.
"I think Andy Schleck will be the most dangerous and I think our biggest danger is if all the contenders work against us," said Contador.
"I still miss something. It is not done yet. We have a very hard week to go. All the stages are difficult, but I think things will be decided on Le Grand Bornand (Wednesday) and on Mont Ventoux (Saturday)," he added.
The danger the Astana team face is guerrilla tactics from rival teams and currently, seven different teams (outside of Astana) occupy the top ten places on the General Classification which gives rise to the possibility of such an assault. Contador has openly stated that he fears the consequences of the likes of Saxo-Bank and Garmin-Slipstream “ganging up” on him.
Schleck is adamant that Contador is fallible and can be caught; "We will continue to attack, even if we die in the process," he said.
"We have seen before that Contador can look strong and suddenly have a bad day, like in Paris-Nice this year. Back then he lost everything and went down. It may happen here as well."
What is surprising is how riders, the likes of Evans, Menchov, Sastre and Frank Shleck have looked rather ordinary when Contador attacks. Can the little Spaniard be that ahead of everyone else?
Very little separates the top thirty riders, in fact Nicholas Roche who currently lies in 30th place is just over 16 minutes down on Contador and after nearly 2,000 miles of racing that isn’t bad.
Roche posted another fine finish on Tuesday coming in just six seconds down on stage winner Mikel Astarloza in fourth place. It is Roche’s fifth top ten placing of his maiden Tour and had he not missed an earlier break that result could have been bettered.
Saturday last was the best placed finish by any Irish rider since Stephen Roche won a stage back in 1993 but coming in second place, as Nicholas did, is scant consolation for what could have been a stage win, national news and the catalyst for cycling in the country to work its way back from the brink of extinction.
