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Leipheimer wins 19th stage of Tour
2007-07-28
Levi Leipheimer won Saturday's 19th stage of the Tour de France, while Alberto Contador closed in on the overall victory by narrowly holding off main rival Cadel Evans in the doping-marred event. Contador lost most of his lead but still holds a 23-second advantage over Evans. Barring a crash or other mishap, the 24-year-old Spaniard likely will bring home the yellow jersey Sunday after the 20th and final stage -- a 90.7-mile ride from Marcoussis to Paris' Champs-Elysees. Leipheimer is 31 seconds behind in third place. Contador entered Saturday's time trial with a 1 minute, 50 second lead over Evans. The big question was whether he could hold off the Australian. Leipheimer, an American rider with the Discovery Channel team, won the stage in a time of 1 hour, 2 minutes, 44 seconds in the 35-mile race against the clock from Cognac to Angouleme. "I have always dreamed of winning a stage of the Tour de France, either a mountain stage or a time trial," Leipheimer told Versus after the stage. "I think my emotion took over (at the end), and I went faster and faster." Contador would be the Tour's youngest winner since Jan Ullrich in 1997. A victory for Evans would be a big lift for sports-mad Australia, where rugby and cricket hold sway. The tense ride injected racing drama to cycling's premier event after three riders were kicked out in the space of 30 hours -- two for doping, and one for lying to his team. The race has been reeling from Wednesday's withdrawal of Rasmussen, as well as other drug-related episodes. Contador took the overall lead only after Rasmussen was kicked out of the race by his Rabobank team for lying about his whereabouts when he missed a doping check last month. Italy's Cristian Moreni and pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov also were ejected after testing positive for doping. Moreni acknowledged the positive test, but Vinokourov has denied doping.
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