Astana’s Alberto Contador of Spain picked up his second Tour de France win today as Mark Cavendish the Brit from Team Columbia - HTC crushed the sprint to win his 6th stage of the tour.

Lance Armstrong who announced he will be riding for new American team, RadioShack next year finished on the podium as well in third place.

Stage 21 Results
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - HTC - 4:02:18
2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia - HTC
3 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
4 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram
5 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française des Jeux
6 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team
7 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
8 Marco Bandiera (Ita) Lampre - NGC
9 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas
10 William Bonnet (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom

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When Astana’s Alberto Contador rides into Paris today, he’ll not only be riding in with the coveted Maillot Jaune, but he’ll also be riding in on these special Alberto Contador Look Keo 2 Max Carbon Pedals.

No official word yet, on whether these will go into production or not, but would you rock yellow pedals?

More pics….

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Alberto Contador is within a stage of winning his second Tour de France as the much anticipated Mont Ventoux stage failed to shake up the GC standings. Tried as they may, the Schleck brothers launched attack after attack, but were not able to shake the rest of the GC contenders.

For Rabobank, Juan Manuel Garate was able to win the penultimate stage 20, staying away with an early break and finishing ahead of Tony Martin for the win. Andy Schleck and the GC leaders finished 38 seconds afterwards.

Stage 20 Results
1 Juan Manuel Garate Cepa (Spa) Rabobank - 4:39:21
2 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC - 0:00:03
3 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank - 0:00:38
4 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana
5 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana - 0:00:41
6 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank - 0:00:43
7 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas - 0:00:46
8 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas - 0:00:56
9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas - 0:00:58
10 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream - 0:01:03

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Mark Cavendish of Team Highroad - HTC sprinted to his fifth stage win at this years tour, edging out Thor Hushovd and Gerald Ciolek. This stage win breaks the British record of 8 total tour stage wins, with Cavendish’s ninth career win.

Alberto Contador remains in the Maillot Jaune leading into the mountain top finish at Mont Ventoux.

Stage 19 Results
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - HTC - 3:50:35
2 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team
3 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram
4 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Silence - Lotto
5 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank
6 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Quick Step
7 Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Skil-Shimano
8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
9 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux
10 Martijn Maaskant (Ned) Garmin - Slipstream

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Overall leader Alberto Contador took a giant step towards his second Tour de France victory when he humbled the time trial specialists over 40.5-km to take the 18th stage around the lake of Annecy on Thursday.

The Spaniard, who outshone Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara by three seconds, now leads his nearest rival for final victory, Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck, by four minutes and 11 seconds, a comfortable gap three days before the finish in Paris.

Lance Armstrong, who announced he will be riding for a new American team, backed by RadioShack in 2010 is in third place and may podium.

Stage 18 Results
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana - 0:48:31
2 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank - 0:00:03
3 Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus) Team Katusha - 0:00:15
4 Gustav Erik Larsson (Swe) Team Saxo Bank - 0:00:32
5 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream - 0:00:40
6 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream - 0:00:42
7 Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne - 0:00:43
8 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Agritubel - 0:00:45
9 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana - 0:00:53
10 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Slipstream - 0:01:01

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As expected, Saxo Bank took to the hills today to hopefully deliver their GC hopeful Andy Schleck into a podium spot and ride they did. Frank Schleck paced his younger brother, Andy Schleck, up the final climbs shedding all other contenders. With only Alberto Contador able to hang with the pace, the elder Schleck took the stage win and with that put the two Schleck brothers in second and third respectively.

Stage 17 Results
1 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank - 4:53:54
2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana
3 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:02:18
5 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana
6 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:02:27
7 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream - 0:03:07
8 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Agritubel - 0:04:09
9 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
10 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne - 0:06:10

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Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel Euskadi timed his sprint just right to break away from his group and take the win at stage 16 of this year’s Tour de France. Accelerating away from Sandy Casar and Pierrick Fedrigo who ended up second and third. Nicolas Roche ended up fourth, not too far behind.

Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong finished the stage together and remain first and second.

Near the finish, Jens Voigt of Saxo Bank crashed unexpectedly and was taken away by ambulance to a local hospital. It’s unclear what caused the accident.

Stage 16 Results
1 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi - 4:14:20
2 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux - 0:00:06
3 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom
4 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
5 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Silence - Lotto
6 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne
7 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas - 0:00:11
8 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
9 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Agritubel - 0:00:59
10 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana

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Alberto Contador of Astana rode away from all the contenders today to win the stage and take hold of the Maillot Jaune. Teammate Lance Armstrong climbed to second overall, but admitted that it was time to work for Contador.

The stage into Verbier was expected to shake up the standings and end Rinaldo Nocentini’s run in yellow.

Stage 15 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 Fränk 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 Klöden (Ger) Astana - 0:01:29
9 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana - 0:01:35
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia - HTC - 0:01:55

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Serguei Ivanov of Team Katusha broke away from a 13 man group of breakaway riders to solo to his second ever tour stage win. American George Hincapie looked as though he all but had the yellow jersey, but missed out on the jersey by only 5 seconds when the peloton ramped up the pace near end of the stage.

Stage 14 Results
1 Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha - 4:37:46
2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale - 0:00:16
3 Hayden Roulston (NZl) Cervelo TestTeam
4 Martijn Maaskant (Ned) Garmin - Slipstream
5 Sébastien Minard (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne
6 Daniele Righi (Ita) Lampre - NGC
7 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux
8 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - HTC
9 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas
10 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram - 0:00:22

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Germany’s Heinrich Haussler won the 13th stage of this year’s Tour de France with Spain’s Amets Txurruka second. Haussler came in more than four minutes ahead of Txurruka and France’s Brice Feillu, who took third.

Rinaldo Nocentini comfortably retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey as no attacks took place on the five climbs of the day. Thor Hushovd takes back the green jersey though.

Haussler had moved with six other riders after only three kilometres and he dropped them one by one to finish on his own after a 197-km ride in the rain and cold.

Astana rider Levi Leipheimer did no start the stage due to a broken wrist. Leipheimer was 1 of 4 Astana riders in the top 10 of the GC.

Stage 13 Results
1 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervelo Test Team -4:56:26
2 Amets Txurruka (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi - 0:04:11
3 Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel - 0:06:13
4 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step - 0:06:31
5 Peter Velits (Svk) Team Milram - 0:06:43
6 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team
7 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream
9 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - HTC
10 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank

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