CYCLING:The Danish cycling federation may have doubts about Michael Rasmussen's probity and the French team managers may question whether he should still be in the Tour at all after missing a brace of out-of-competition drug tests, but the man himself rode with absolute certainty over the weekend. He is commonly known as "Chicken" but it is his opponents who look fried.

Having managed an infinitely better than expected ride in Saturday's time-trial at Albi, the former mountain-bike world champion crowned that yesterday by performing as usual when the road went uphill. Only Alberto Contador was able to hold his pace, and the look of the cyclists who trailed into this cross country ski station, high above the Ariege valley, seemed to confirm that the Spaniard is now Rasmussen's only real challenger.

Assuming this Tour does not end up, like last year's, in the law courts over drug-test results - and whatever the questions over Rasmussen's whereabouts, there is no hint of that - the key moment of the race may turn out to have come between four and five kilometres from the finish when the Australian Cadel Evans was unable to hold the pace.

Evans is a redoubtable time-triallist, who had finished one minute 41 seconds ahead of Rasmussen on Saturday, when "Chicken" put in a ride that was reminiscent of the time-trials which helped another pure climber, Marco Pantani, to overall victories in the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in 1998, when the Italian won the first stage finish to be held here.

The Australian, like Rasmussen a former world-class mountain-bike racer, had started yesterday only one minute behind the Dane and had only to hold him through the Pyrenees to have a realistic hope of overall victory. That was never going to be as easy as it looked on paper and on the climb to the chequered flag he was the principal casualty in a classic battle between the pure climbers and the all-rounders, who rely more on time-trialling.

The latter category, men such as Evans, the German Andreas Kloden and the American Levi Leipheimer, rely on maintaining a steady pace up a mountain, never quite going into the red. The real climbing specialists such as Rasmussen, Contador and the lanky Colombian Mauricio Soler seek to change the pace repeatedly, forcing the time-triallists to make one massive effort after another until they break.

Between them Contador, Soler and Rasmussen sprinted away from Evans at least half a dozen times. Each time his response was a little slower, his pedalling a little less fluid, his front wheel zigzagged just a little more.

Finally he cracked and had no option but to ride at his own pace, eventually linking up with Kloden. The Australian is now 3:04 behind overall, and a similar loss of time today or tomorrow will settle the Tour in Rasmussen's favour.

After the finish Evans bitterly criticised David Millar and the Saunier Duval team for setting too high a pace on the vertiginous, narrow Port de Pailheres.

"They were incredibly stupid. It was just too hard. We were all exhausted. I think Rasmussen and Contador have shown they are the two best climbers in the Tour today."

At the finish it was Contador who sprinted past Rasmussen for a victory which may give the Discovery Channel team a boost in their search for a new sponsor. At this late stage in the season, finding new finance is a desperate matter, and it is reported that their part-owner, Lance Armstrong, may turn up at the finish in Paris to help find a backer.

After the finish Rasmussen noted that Discovery have two cards to play, Contador and Leipheimer, who rode consistently over the weekend, and the latter now lies fourth overall at 4:29. Unlike his erstwhile leader at Astana, Alexandr Vinokourov, whose time-trial win on Saturday was merely a very dramatic flash in the pan, Kloden is still close enough to Rasmussen to hope: he survived a crash in the time-trial - avoiding his dodgy coccyx - then limited his losses yesterday to remain 4:38 behind.

But today's stage, over four steep passes, may well enable the Rabobank "Chicken" to continue his fine run.

All four Britons remain in the race with a week to the finish. Yesterday Charly Wegelius remained with the leaders until the pace hotted up on the climb to the finish and managed a more than respectable 30th, and David Millar led an abortive attempt by the Saunier-Duval team to put Iban Mayo in a position to win the stage. Bradley Wiggins showed no ill-effects from a sterling effort in Saturday's time-trial, and Geraint Thomas finished alongside the Olympic champion in the "little group" of non-climbers.

Guardian Service