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LEDE TOUR FRANCE:Kirchen retains the yellow jersey, Sanchez wins stage

Team Columbia rider George Hincapie of the US, second right, cycles with his team during the seventh stage of the Tour de France between Brioude and Aurillac, central France, on Friday. PHOTO: EPA

There is a golden rule in cycling that is usually respected. When the yellow jersey wearer needs a toilet stop, the peloton usually slows down considerably to let him catch up.

On Friday’s second day of climbing, that rule was consigned to nostalgia as the CSC and Columbia team launched the first skirmishes in the battle for the yellow jersey.

In the end, it proved to be a phony war.

Luxembourg’s Kim Kirchen recovered from his rather hurried stop to go on and retain his six-second lead over Cadel Evans, the Australian among those who nevertheless felt the effects of a fast and tactical day of bike racing.

“There was a lot of action, a lot more than everyone expected,” said Evans, who managed to stay up the front with teammate Dario Cioni after a rapid acceleration by the ambitious CSC team on 60km.

After Kirchen’s capture of the yellow jersey in Thursday’s seventh stage, the first skirmishes in the battle for the race lead left damage in their wake.

But the biggest souvenir from the second day of climbing in the “medium” mountain stages was the full exposure of the existing rivalry between three of Luxembourg’s most talented bike riders.

In one corner is Kirchen, the Columbia team leader. In the other stands Frank Schleck and his younger brother Andy, who have the official job of helping Spaniard Carlos Sastre, their team leader, win the race.

It is the worst-kept secret in the peloton that the Schlecks and Kirchen are enemies. Their respective fathers are former Tour de France riders and in Luxembourg there is said to exist two rival camps.

After Columbia spent energy chasing down Scotland’s David Millar, who began the day in fifth place just 47 seconds behind Kirchen, CSC benefited from the crash of Italian Damiano Cunego and some tough wind conditions to force the pace.

Columbia were forced to battle, but in the end managed to keep the yellow jersey on the 30-year-old’s shoulders.

Despite putting a lot of teams in trouble, a lack of help from, notably, Alejandro Valverde’s Caisse d’Epargne team stopped CSC from trying to distance Kirchen.

“If Caisse d’Epargne had worked with us and two or three more [teams], we could have gone to the end and it would have been a nice finish,” said Andy Schleck, tipped as a future winner of the race.

A vigilant Evans managed to stay with the front runners all day and at the end of the stage finish six seconds behind Valverde’s stage-winning teammate Luis Leon Sanchez, among a group of 22 riders containing all the favorites.

In the end, Kirchen kept the yellow jersey — and even defiantly sprinted ahead of his rivals toward the stage finish behind Sanchez.



■DOPING SCANDAL

Agencies, FIGEAC and AURILLAC, France

Spain’s Manuel Beltran, who was withdrawn from the Tour de France on Friday after failing a dope test, was at the airport when the rest of the peloton set off on the eighth stage yesterday.

“He was at the airport this morning and is returning home,” Liquigas team manager Roberto Amadio said before the start of the 172.5km ride to Toulouse.

Although Beltran’s positive test, the first of this year’s race, was the buzz of the morning, Tour organizers played it down.

“We have to stay calm. I don’t understand that this can grow out of proportion. It is ordinary that on such a big sporting event with 180 riders at the start there is a positive test,” said Patrice Clerc, president of organizers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO).

Tour director Christian Prudhomme said: “It is always disappointing, but what I can say is that there is one less cheat on the Tour.”

The head of the French anti-doping agency Pierre Bordry said on Friday that the 37-year-old Liquigas rider had traces of the performance-enhancing drug in a test carried out during the three-week race.

“There are not just traces of EPO, there is EPO,” Bordry said by telephone. “Whether there is a lot or a little, EPO is forbidden.”
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