Cadel Evans and Andy Schleck will be among the Tour de France contenders keeping their eyes glued to their rivals as the seventh stage takes the race into the Alps.
Behind them there are a group of riders just a single minute back who may be looking to make up any time on the two best positioned general classification chances.
Alberto Contador (Astana), Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Denis Menchov (Rabibank) are three sitting behind Schleck and Evans on that mark, with others like Lance Armstrong (RadioShack) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) approximately a further minute back on the duo.
The first of three days in the Alps begin with a 165.5km ride from Tournus in southern Burgundy to the Alpine ski station of Les Rousses.
Despite the fact an already beat-up peloton will tackle five medium-sized climbs before the 14km ascent to Rousses, there have been hints the race's big guns will keep their powder dry for Sunday's more difficult stage to Morzine-Avoriaz.
In comparison, stage seven is more of an appetiser -- the final climb's average gradient is just five percent and it has been suggested that Swiss race leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank), who is not a climbing specialist, will emerge with the yellow jersey still on his back.
Yet both Geraint Thomas, Team Sky's Welsh debutant, and Evans (BMC), a former two-time runner-up, have a great chance of taking the race lead as both are only 23 and 39sec behind Cancellara respectively.
Nevertheless, Evans and Schleck will be keeping a close eye on attacks from riders like Armstrong and Sanchez, who have time to make up after losing time on the tough stage three over the cobbles.
"Even in these early days people will be looking for opportunities, and there's a couple of guys on the back foot," said Evans.
"I know how it is in that position, you've got to look for opportunities everywhere."
Evans, Schleck and Contador were all big winners on stage three's ride over the cobbles.
Luxemburger Schleck is now sixth overall 30sec behind Evans but 1:11 ahead of Armstrong while Contador is ninth at 1:01 behind Evans and 50sec ahead of Armstrong.
Schleck has come into the Tour as the main challenger to two-time winner Contador after he finished runner-up to the Spanish all-rounder in 2009, albeit over four minutes adrift.
And the Saxo Bank climbing specialist seemed to suggest he will be paying special attention to Armstrong.
"There's two riders I need to pay close attention to, and that's Armstrong and Contador. They are the strongest. Armstrong's in good form, better than people might think," he said.
Thomas, the Welsh former track cyclist, has brought an air of excitement to the Tour after a superb first week of racing.
In doing so he has upstaged team leader Bradley Wiggins, although in reality the situation suits the Londoner who is fully focused on staking his own yellow jersey claim after a fourth place finish in 2009.
Thomas therefore has a great chance of pulling on the yellow jersey himself. That would be considered a huge achievement for his team on their debut, and is a prospect he had never dreamed of.
"It's quite strange to be in this position, but it's been a nice first week. It's not bad really, is it?" he said Friday.
Yes, last night was only the intro to the alps and its sorted it out a bit, our own Cadel is looking good.
Aggressive Chavanel retakes lead 11 July 2010 | 00:00
France's Sylvain Chavanel of the Quick Step team reclaimed the Tour de France yellow jersey on after winning the seventh stage.
The French rider, already winner of the second stage at Spa crossed the line alone nearly one minute ahead of Spanish duo Rafael Valls and Juan Manuel Garate.
None of the yellow jersey contenders lost time on what was the first day in the mountains and Quick Step all-rounder Chavanel now holds a 1min 25sec lead on Australian Cadel Evans (BMC).
Evans's fellow yellow jersey challenger Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) is fourth at 1min 55sec, with reigning champion Alberto Contador (Astana) sixth at 2min 26sec and seven-time champion Lance Armstrong (Radio Shack) 14th at 3min 16sec.
The first peloton crossed the line nearly two minutes behind Chavanel who takes the overall lead from Swiss Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) who struggled during the mountain stage.
Chavanel won the second stage of the race in Spa on Monday to take the race lead from Cancellara.
However that victory was tinged with controversy as Cancellara, fearing for his team leader Andy Schleck after a crash left the Luxemburger dangerously trailing, negotiated a pact of non-aggression in the peloton which finished the last 30km at a snail's pace.
The incident left Chavanel to race solo to victory, but provoked anger from some teams in the peloton and took the shine off a deserved win.
Having handed over the yellow jersey to Cancellara after a disastrous stage three, Chavanel promised to try for the jersey again.
After racing away from a number of rivals on the descent towards the sixth and final climb of Saturday's 165.5km stage from Tournus, Chavanel admitted the Spa incident had been his motivation.
"It's a nice revenge for me," he said. "When I won (on Monday) the peloton sat up.
"People were telling me this morning that I had a good chance of being in the yellow jersey again today, but I didn't really believe them."
A five-man breakaway lit up the first climbing stage of this year's race with Frenchman Jerome Pineau (Quick Step), wearing the best climber's polka dot jersey, looking to add to his points tally.
The quintet went on to build a significant lead of over eight minutes on the peloton, however the Bbox team - with no representatives up front - pulled to the front of the chase and began accelerating at the 57km mark.
By the time the peloton arrived at the foot of the Col de la Croix de la Sera 30km from the finish they had brought the lead down to 3min 33sec.
It was early on the 15.7km climb that a number of counter attacks began to form, with Bbox rider Thomas Voeckler being joined by teammate Cyril Gauthier and, later, Italian Damiano Cunego (Lampre) and Australian Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma Lotto).
The peloton's subsequent accelerations left some riders in trouble, including Cancellara who was left momentarily dropping off the back of the pack. His yellow jersey would soon come under threat after Chavanel attacked on the climb.
At the front, meanwhile, Pineau was left with only German Danilo Hondo (Lampre) for company after accelerations by the Frenchman first left Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) and Ruben Moreno (Euskaltel Euskadi) struggling and then had German Christian Knees (Milram) in trouble.
Chavanel then launched an audacious bid to reclaim the yellow jersey when he attacked the chasing peloton on the climb with three other riders.
The Quick Step man accelerated again and soon joined Cunego's chase group which crested the summit of the Croix de la Sera with a 50sec deficit to the front pair.
Pineau left Hondo in his wake early on the climb to Les Rousses however the Frenchman, having claimed most of the climbing points on offer, slowed down when he realised teammate Chavanel was approaching.
Chavanel was soon left on his own and despite being chased by Spaniards Rafael Valls and Juan Manuel Garate he went on to finish with a 57-second advantage on the former.
"In the final my legs were on fire, but I just told myself to keep going," Chavanel said.
"These kinds of small climbs suit me perfectly, and when I caught up with Jerome he encouraged me to keep going.
Evans bounces back to take yellow 12 July 2010 | 00:00
Cadel Evans bounced back from an early scare on the first real mountain stage of the Tour de France to match all his rivals and take possession of the yellow jersey.
Evans, Australia's two-time runner-up who finished a disappointing 30th overall in 2009, started the day in second place only 1min 25sec off the pace of Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step.
By the end of the 189km mountain test, which took in the two category one monster climbs of Ramaz and Avoriaz, Evans took the yellow jersey for the first time since 2008 to lead Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, who won the stage, by 20secs.
The Australian knows the hard work will come in the final week of the race which features four punishing days in the Pyrenees, and then a long time trial on the penultimate stage.
But ahead of Monday's rest day, which is followed by a final day in the Alps, the BMC team leader was doubly happy - to still be in the race, and to have the lead.
"I don't know if everyone saw my fall after 6 km. I thought then that the Tour might be over," said Evans, who had to ride most of the 2008 edition hampered by injuries after a crash early in the race.
"I had to get treatment from the doctor."
As Chavanel is not a specialist climber the Frenchman knew he would give up the race lead, but it was not until late on the 14km climb to Avoriaz that Evans was assured of the yellow jersey.
With Spain's reigning champion Alberto Contador also third at 1min 01sec, the Aussie might not have too much time to enjoy being the Tour de France leader.
Evans admits his BMC team, which has proved to be far more supportive in his bid than Silence-Lotto were last year, will have to come up with a plan.
"We'll wait for for the stages after tomorrow. We'll think about it and come up with plan," he added.
"The Pyrenees are very hard, and Andy's going well. Also, Contador and Astana are really strong, so we'll have to see and decide how to approach the mountains."
Despite Evans' scrapes from his crash, seven-time champion Lance Armstrong came off far worse, the American crashing before the climb to Ramaz and losing nearly 12 minutes to finish more than 13 minutes behind Evans.
While Schleck suggested the peloton owed it to the American to wait, Evans was less generous in his assessment.
He remembers only too well the times rivals did not wait for him: "To have a crash in a mountain stage of a Tour can be really difficult.
"Today I crashed but two years ago when I crashed in the Tour I had one of hardest days of my career on the stage to Hautacam, with all the bruising and pain.
"That day, I got dropped with (sprinter) Julian Dean on the first climb and was fighting for yellow at the end of day.
"I went from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. It was a bit different today."
A year after losing the race by 23sec to Contador in 2007, Evans was pipped to the yellow jersey on the way to Alpe d'Huez in 2008 by eventual winner Carlos Sastre.
Asked what he has learned since his last stint in the yellow jersey, Evans added: "Believe in yourself, believe in the people around you and stay calm."
A look at the favourites Matthew Keenan 13 July 2010 |
Among those on the long list of contenders at the start of this year’s Tour de France the only certainty on the first rest day is that Lance Armstrong is no longer on that list.
This is shaping up as a potentially great edition of the race with up to seven riders with a genuine chance of adding their name to the honour roll.
The current top three of Cadel Evans, Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador are the front runners but Denis Menchov, Samuel Sanchez and Ivan Basso are still in the mix and Levi Leipheimer hasn’t shown any signs of weakness.
Evans was brilliant to Morzine-Avoriaz. Combating the crash early in the stage, being in the right spot at all times on the climb when it mattered and getting the job done.
For all the debate on him leaving Silence-Lotto and joining BMC it has clearly been the right decision.
Steve Morabito rode strongly on the first real day of climbing, and George Hincapie and Marcus Burghardt have been brilliant on their favoured terrain.
The change of teams is still the right decision even though his former team-mate Jurgen Van Den Broeck is currently fourth. This would have been a good combination in theory but with the water under the bridge from last year the relationship between Evans and the team was too fractured.
No doubt Evans and BMC would rather not be defending yellow this early but given the choice between being ahead of Schleck and Contador or facing a deficit, with one of these two men at the top of the general classification, they would take the current scenario without hesitation.
All the talk of not wanting the yellow is only relevant if they could have chosen to have the leader’s jersey stay with Chavanel or another rider who isn’t a big threat.
It’s better for Evans to be in a position of defending a lead rather having to take time on his main rivals.
The questions mark now over Evans is the severity of his injuries.
Even minor injuries catch up with you through accumulated fatigue. It takes a little longer each night to get to sleep and the body is repairing damaged tissue as well as tired muscles. The upside is pretty much all the other favourites have also crashed.
To Morzine-Avoriaz Schleck was clearly the strongest. Contador tried to respond but didn’t have the legs providing ample evidence that he’s beatable. Evans also looked a little vulnerable at this point but fought impressively to hang on.
After the stage Evans still rated Contador as the biggest threat due to his ability against the clock and the steeper climbs to come, which are more to the Spaniard’s liking.
Schleck is well aware of his shortcomings in the time trial so is bound to continually attack in the mountains.
Of the others Denis Menchov and Ivan Basso are proven grand tour winners.
The gap between Basso and Evans is effectively the same as it was at this point of the Giro d’Italia. Basso also has the Romain Kreuziger card to play.
Similarly, Menchov has the advantage of having Robert Gesink in the Rabobank colours. Gesink was arguably the second strongest on the first mountain top finish but isn’t yet a genuine contender due to questionable descending ability, limited race craft and inevitable loses in the final time trial.
And, somehow, Menchov has managed to avoid the crashes.
Samuel Sanchez hasn’t won over three weeks yet but is bold enough to try to take time on the descents at the end of stages nine and 15. He has the potential to cause a surprise.
And while Levi Leipheimer won’t animate the race he’ll never be too far away. Let’s not forget when he finished third in 2007 he was just eight-seconds behind Evans after being having received a 10-second time penalty.
Plus, when he was second to Contador in the 2008 Vuelta it was only the time bonuses that separated the then teammates, and there are no time bonuses at this year’s Tour.
With the general classification so evenly balanced we are in for an entertaining two weeks of racing.
Evans admits his Tour is all but over 14 July 2010 | 00:00
Cadel Evans has admitted his hopes of becoming Australia's first Tour de France champion are over after he lost precious minutes to key rivals on Stage 9 because of a previously unreported fracture to his elbow.
The BMC rider had taken the race lead at the end of Stage 8, when he finished 10 seconds behind stage winner Andy Schleck to take a 20-second overall lead on the Luxemburger.
However a day after the race's first rest day Evans was dropped halfway through the 25.5km Col de la Madeleine climb as the Astana team of reigning champion Alberto Contador set a punishing pace.
He eventually finished 42nd at 8min 07sec behind Schleck and Contador as Frenchman Sandy Casar took the stage honours having been part of an early breakaway.
Evans, the two-time runner-up in 2007 and 2008, dropped 17 places to 18th overall and 7min 47sec behind Schleck.
The Australian collapsed in tears into a teammate's arms at the finish, and after talking to BMC team manager John Lelangue he finally found enough composure to explain his day of suffering in the saddle.
He revealed that the left arm he injured in a crash early on the eighth stage was actually fractured, handicapping him for a stage which was billed as a major battle between the yellow jersey contenders.
"It cost me a lot of energy, but maybe in my situation, in the yellow jersey, it's also vulnerability," Evans said.
"I'm not at my normal level, but when you're in the yellow jersey at the Tour whether you're good or not you have to be there.
"The team were all fantastic, but obviously it's me who has to finish off the job."
As Schleck and Contador went on to duel to the summit, crossing over with a 2min 10sec deficit to a group of leaders, Evans battled up the rest of the climb to crest the summit 9min 38sec behind the frontrunners.
At the end of the 32km descent towards the finish line, Evans finished more than eight minutes behind stage winner Casar with Schleck inheriting the yellow jersey with a 41 seconds lead on Contador.
Evans broke down in tears in a teammate's arms after he crossed the line, distraught at seeing his 2010 Tour ambitions all but disappear.
BMC team manager Lelangue tried to put a silver lining on the situation.
"We knew there would be repercussions after his crash. But for us the race continues," Lelangue, who was quick to praise Evans's heroic efforts to close the gap on the descent, said.
"He tried to limit the damage on the way down from the Madeleine, he did a great job on the descent.
"We lost the yellow jersey, but that's racing, you just have to accept it. But Cadel really showed his fighting spirit today. He was more than courageous."
Schleck said afterwards he did not regard Evans as a big contender anyway, given the Australian's efforts at the three-week Giro d'Italia in May.
"I'm not really surprised Cadel had a bad day today, especially with the Giro behind him. I didn't really see him winning this Tour," Schleck said.
"He's got a fracture in his arm, and that doesn't make things easier. Unfortunately he lost the jersey but that's the race. I'm happy that I now have it."
Asked whether his Tour campaign was now over, Evans added: "I haven't seen the results yet but I'm pretty sure it's over for this year."
Britain's Mark Cavendish dominated a controversial bunch sprint on the 11th stage of the Tour de France which led to the disqualification of his team-mate Mark Renshaw.
Luxembourg's Andy Schleck, of Saxo Bank, retained the yellow jersey with his lead of 41 seconds on Spain's Alberto Contador intact after a 184.5-kilometre race between Sisteron and Bourg-Les-Valence.
Cavendish, the winner of six stages in 2009 and four in 2008, has now won three stages in this year's race, taking his career tally to an impressive 13.
In doing so, the Isle of Man sprinter surpasses the 12-stage victory tally of several notable sprinters including German great Erik Zabel, Italian Mario Cipollini and Australian Robbie McEwen.
Cavendish's 13th victory in the race, however, will be remembered as an unlucky one for his team.
As HTC-Columbia wound up the speed inside the final kilometre in a bid to drop rivals and deliver Cavendish to the 200 metres to go mark, his lead-out man Renshaw tried to head-butt New Zealander Julian Dean three times.
Australian Renshaw is considered one of the world's best lead-out men, whose job is to crank up the pace in the final kilometre of the race and fend off rivals before the sprinter launches his final drive for the line.
But even that status did not save him from race officials, who quickly took action. Top race official Jean-Francois Pescheux said: "Renshaw was declassified immediately but we have decided to also throw him off the race.
"We've only seen the pictures once, but his actions are plain for all to see. They were blatant.
"This is a bike race, not a gladiator's arena. Everyone could have crashed today."
Tyler Farrar, whose Garmin-Transitions team promised to challenge Cavendish's domination prior to the stage, had tried to sneak up the barriers on the inside of Cavendish only to have Renshaw then veer to the left to block him.
The American said HTC-Columbia's win-at-all-costs tactics were simply uncalled for.
"Everything was going great. I was on Julian's wheel and he took me up to Cavendish's wheel with 300 metres to go," Farrar said.
"When Cavendish launched his sprint, Renshaw veered to the left and I had to put my hand on his back to steady myself.
"They just don't need to race like that."
Farrar admitted Cavendish's sprint was clean, but said he was more concerned about safety issues resulting from Renshaw's tactics.
He added: "Of course I'm upset. I wanted to win, but more than anything I didn't want to crash. They're playing with the security of the riders there."
Upon learning of Renshaw's exclusion from the race, Cavendish admitted he was "sad".
However the Briton, who came under scrutiny at the Tour of Switzerland when he left his sprint line, causing a mass pile-up which led to injuries for several riders, said he did not "necessarily agree with the decision".
"Commissaires have made a decision that we don't necessarily agree with," he said.
Asked if that meant he agreed with headbutting tactics during the race, Cavendish added: "I did not say I disagreed with the decision of the commissaires."
Cavendish's win, meanwhile, means he is back in the race for the points competition's green jersey, which is now being worn by Italian Alessandro Petacchi after he dispossessed 2009 winner Thor Hushovd.
Unlike Farrar, Petacchi managed to stick to Cavendish's wheel but could not overtake the Manxman.
The Lampre rider leads the green jersey race on 161pts, with Cervelo's Hushovd second on 157, Australian Robbie McEwen on 138 and Cavendish on 132.
The 12th stage is held over a rolling 210.5km from Bourg-Peage to Mende and finishes on the steep, 3km 'Jalabert' climb.
There's a lot of strategy involved with riders who are better at level sprints, for example, getting in front of the guys who are more built for the uphill climbs in order to decrease wind resistance and then fall back to let the uphill guy go, then also theres strategy in your team riding together at various points in the race in order to plug things up for other teams. I don't like cycling and just learned this recently from someone who's way into it, but apparently is very strategic and what I said only touches a bit on it. I got bored and walked away from the conversation so that's all I learned.
It is a team contest, Candy, nothing to do with countries, but individual riders win the different stages, ie yellow jersey for overall leader, green jersey for winner of the sprints and polka dot jersey for leader in mountain stages etc
Alexandre Vinokourov made up for sacrificing his own ambitions on the Tour de France when he capped a superb late attack on the 13th stage of the race to take the win in the town of Revel.
Luxembourg's Andy Schleck, of Saxo Bank, retained the race leader's yellow jersey with his 31sec lead on main rival and reigning champion Alberto Contador intact ahead of the first stage in the Pyrenees.
Vinokourov, who only returned to racing last year, was delighted with his win after capping a late counter-attack to Italian Alessandro Ballan with a determined drive for the finish line.
It is his first victory on the race since 2005, when he won two stages as part of the T-Mobile team.
"For me, just to be at the Tour de France is a victory. So to win a stage makes me very happy," said Vinokourov, who served a two-year ban after being caught blood doping at the race in 2007.
"When I was racing as an amateur they used to tell me that winning a stage on the Tour is similar to winning the world championships. And that's true.
"So I'm very happy, not just me but for my team, my family and all the people in Kazakhstan."
Vinokourov attacked late on Friday's stage to Mende, where he had to drop his own ambitions after Astana teammate Contador countered a late attack by Spaniard Joaquin Rodriguez to overtake the Kazakh rider, eventually taking 10secs off Schleck.
This time, Vinokourov made no mistake. After former world champion Ballan had jumped out of the peloton with 8.7km remaining, the Kazakh joined a small group of riders in a bid to close the gap.
By the time he had crested the summit, Ballan had run out of juice. Vinokourov soloed past with ease, and employed impressive bike handling skills on the rest of the downhill section to keep the peloton at bay.
The HTC-Columbia team of British sprinter Mark Cavendish had been hard at work all day helping to chase down a three-man breakaway, which was reeled in with 10km remaining.
But by then the American outfit had nothing left to offer.
The 1.9km-long Saint-Ferreol climb, just after the 10km to go banner, provided the perfect ramp for the late attacks which came and went, and ended their hopes of seeing Cavendish win a fourth stage on this year's race.
Cavendish went on to win the sprint for second, the Isle of Man rider thus adding precious points to his tally for the green jersey.
Despite missing out, he was quick to applaud Vinokourov's performance.
"At the end (of the stage) we weren't riding full gas," said Cavendish.
"I had to use my team the whole day so I didn't have anyone, but if any of the other sprint teams wanted to take it (chase) up maybe we could have got him back. But he did a very impressive ride.
"We didn't win the stage today... but it was an incredible ride by Vinokourov. He deserves that win."
Cavendish consoled himself by picking up 30 points to close the gap significantly to rivals Alessandro Petacchi and reigning champion and competition leader Thor Hushovd.
Once again Hushovd finished off the pace, the Norwegian crossing the line in eighth to collect 18pts. He now has a total of 187pts, with Petacchi on 185 and Cavendish on 162.
However, Cavendish is coy about his chances.
"It's just important to minimise my losses now. Thor's always there, Petacchi's there.... we'll see what happens," he added.
Sunday's 184.5km-long 14th stage from Revel to the summit of Ax-3-Domaines is the first of four in total in the Pyrenees, which are set to stage the yellow jersey duel between Schleck and two-time champion Contador.
Vinokourov added: "This victory is also very important for the team's motivation, especially with four days in the Pyrenees remaining
Riblon triumphs as fight for yellow continues 19 July 2010 | 00:00
Frenchman Christophe Riblon of AG2R claimed a deserved maiden Tour de France victory on the race's 14th stage as an anticipated yellow jersey battle failed to materialise.
Race leader Andy Schleck from Luxembourg retained the race lead with his 31-second advantage on main rival Alberto Contador from Spain intact after the pair stubbornly played poker games with each other on the stage's two difficult climbs.
Instead, podium hopefuls Samuel Sanchez from Spain and Russian Denis Menchov were given unexpected freedom in the final third of the 7.8km climb to the summit finish here to close their respective deficits.
As Riblon finished off an impressive solo performance to claim his first success on the race, Sanchez and Menchov crossed the line together, 52 seconds adrift. Schleck and Contador came over the finish around 15 seconds later.
Riblon, who also has a parallel career as a track cyclist, had been part of an eight-man breakaway which formed early in the stage and which held a lead of more than 10 minutes on the peloton.
As their lead steadily dropped as Contador's Astana team upped the pace in the chasing peloton, Riblon broke free of compatriot Amael Moinard with 2km to race to the summit of the 15.5km Port de Pailheres.
After the long descent, he began the final climb with Moinard chasing but he upped the pace again on the 7.8km climb to give himself a sufficient cushion to complete the climb unchallenged.
"I don't know what to say, I'm just too emotional," Riblon, who was congratulated by Schleck after the Luxemburger's arrival, said.
"Today I felt like I really had good legs, and so I went for it. Given the fact that Astana were chasing hard behind the breakaway, my victory feels even more valuable.
"I did a good climb. It's the kind of result I've been after for a long time."
Schleck admitted to playing mind games with Contador.
But the Luxemburger said he is happy to wait to take more time off the Spanish ace if it means finishing the race in Paris with the yellow jersey.
"He played poker, I played poker, we both played poker today," said Schleck.
"I can afford to lose time to the others but I had to play the game today. Tomorrow will be different.
"I want to win this Tour."
Contador tried to shake Schleck off his wheel at the 5km then 4km to go marks, although his accelerations were brief and lacked conviction.
In the end Menchov and Sanchez benefited from the poker games to attack unchallenged.
It was only in the final two kilometres that Contador and Schleck threw in their cards in a bid to limit the damage being done ahead of them.
"We toyed with each other, but I think I finished the day on top," said Contador, who could decide simply to limit his time losses to Schleck throughout the Pyrenees ahead of Saturday's 50km time trial, a discipline in which he is superior to Schleck.
"But I don't think the final climb was hard enough for either of us to take time off each other. In the end we decided to collaborate to chase down Menchov and Sanchez."
Euskaltel's Sanchez closed his overnight deficit of 2min 45sec to 2min 31sec, with Menchov staying in fourth at 2min 44sec.
A number of pre-race contenders continued to see their respective campaigns crumble, with Lance Armstrong dropped early on the 15.5km clmb to the summit of Pailheres.
Australians Michael Rogers and Cadel Evans, Britain's Bradley Wiggins and American Levi Leipheimer were left among the strugglers on the final climb.
Leipheimer is RadioShack's main hope of a podium place after Armstrong's stunning collapse on the first high mountain stage last week but the Californian dropped one place to seventh to 4min 51sec behind Schleck as Menchov's Rabobank teammate, Dutchman Robert Gesink, moved up to sixth.
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