Tour de France: Alexander Vinokourov clinched his second victory of this year's Tour de France with panache when he won the 196-km 15th stage from Foix today.
The Astana rider, who lost all hope of winning the race when he
cracked and crashed on Sunday's 14th stage, went solo 15 km from
the summit of the Col de Peyresourde to beat Luxembourg's Kim
Kirchen of the T-Mobile team.
Euskaltel rider Haimar Zubeldia of Spain came home third.
Overall leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark retained the yellow
jersey.
Rasmussen was attacked during the last climb by Spaniard
Alberto Contador, second in the overall standings, but managed to
resist the Discover Channel rider to maintain his race lead of two
minutes 23 seconds.
"I was about to be dropped. He is the one who has the best
acceleration in the peloton," Rasmussen told reporters. "I knew I
had to stay in his wheel until the summit otherwise I would have
struggled alone in the descent.
"If I stay with Contador until the last time trial, I think
it will be enough to bring the yellow jersey back to Paris," added
the Rabobank rider.
Australian Cadel Evans and Germany's Andreas Kloeden were unable
to respond to Contador's violent burst of speed and they finished
56 seconds behind the pair.
Evans is third, four minutes adrift of Rasmussen, with
American Levi Leipheimer fourth 1:25 further behind.
Vinokourov's team mate Kloeden is fifth, 5:34 off the pace.
"Yesterday, I had no strength. I told myself the Tour is over
but I got the support of the whole team," said Vinokourov, who had
been back in contention after winning Saturday's time trial in
Albi.
The Kazakh, however, lost almost half an hour on Monday and
crashed during the ascent of the Plateau-de-Beille.
"I said this morning that I wanted to give it a try. I knew
the Col de Peyresourde very well."
Vinokourov, who now has five Tour stage victories to his
name, was in the 24-man breakaway that built an advantage of 9:50
over the main pack.
The Kazakh, who suffered injuries to his knees during a crash
in the first week, attacked at the bottom of the category-one climb
and never looked back.
The peloton will rest tomorrow before Wednesday's hardest
stage in the Pyrenees, a 218.5-km ride from Orthez to the Col
d'Aubisque.