Contador attacked at 5km to go and no one could catch him as he crossed the line he did his traditional gun salute.
A break of 10 riders got away after 50km including Fabian Cancellara of Saxo Bank,Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Silence), Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel), Jos? Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d’Epargne), Amael Moinard, David Moncouti? (Cofidis), Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox), Simon Spilak (Lampre), and Juan Antonio Flecha of Rabobank.
Over the second last climb Astana lead the peleton 3:23 behind the breakaway. On the fast descent heading into the valley, Liquigas moved to the front of the main field and the peleton was back together after the descent.
At the foot of the last climb to Verbier the race truly opened as the main favourties were dropped leaving only Andy Schleck, Fr?nk Schleck, Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador (Astana) in the front group. Carlos Sastre (Cervelo)was put under pressure and he managed to take 6th on the line.
Alberto Contador launched a lightning attack leaving everyone behind.Team Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck countered dropping the seven time champion of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong and finishing 43 seconds behind the Astana rider. Fr?nk Schleck crossed the finish line about twenty seconds behind his brother.
“Lance is my idol, but today I could not think of that. He’s very professional, and I know he will work for me, he has said so," said the new race leader Contador. "This stage was a kind of liberation for me, especially with the difficult days before. I needed a stage like this. Last night I was only hoping for good legs. I did have some doubts because you never know about other riders.”
Honestly I didn’t know what to expect. It’s been so long since we had a finish like this. It was as hard as I thought it was going to be and a lot harder than Andorra. It’s been four years since I’ve done something like that and I was unsure. I felt good leading up to it but that high end stuff is what I’m missing.” Armstrong said. "We’ve still got three strong cards to play. If other teams want to mess with us and play tactical games we’ve still got myself and Andreas. We’ll have to look at the overall to see where we are tonight. As a team we’re strong. There’s been a lot of drama between Alberto and I, especially in the media, but at the end of the day we all sit around the table and in the team meeting and we all say the last thing we can do is lose the Tour. If we ride into Paris with the yellow jersey on the team I am cool with that. I’ve got seven of them at home.”
Top Ten Results
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 5:03:58
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:43
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:01:03
4 Fr?nk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:06
5 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin – Slipstream
6 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo TestTeam
7 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence – Lotto 0:01:26
8 Andreas Kl?den (Ger) Astana 0:01:29
9 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:01:35
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia – HTC 0:01:55
General Classification after Stage 15
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 63:17:56
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:01:37
3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin – Slipstream 0:01:46
4 Andreas Kl?den (Ger) Astana 0:02:17
5 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:26
6 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:30
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:02:51
8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia – HTC 0:03:07
9 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Fran?aise des Jeux 0:03:09
10 Fr?nk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:03:25
