AFP/Paris


Alberto Contador underlined his Tour de France potential in beating Nairo Quintana to win the third stage of the Route du Sud yesterday.
Although there is still another stage to go in the four-day race across the south of France, yesterday’s 181km mountainous run from Izaourt to Bagneres-de-Luchon in the Pyrenees was always viewed as the decisive stage. The 32-year-old Tinkoff-Saxo leader attacked Colombian Quintana on the final climb of the day but although he could not drop him, Contador made the difference on the descent into the finish.
He came home 13 seconds ahead of the Movistar leader and will almost certainly now win the race. Both riders sprung a surprise by entering the Route du Sud instead of traditional pre-Tour warm-up races the Criterium du Dauphine or Tour of Switzerland.
For both it is their final race before the Grand Boucle begins on July 4 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. They will be among the favourites for overall victory alongside champion Vincenzo Nibali and the man he deposed, Chris Froome. Young French climber Pierre-Roger Latour, 21, took third on the stage in Bagneres-de-Luchon.

Pinot stays in Tour of Switzerland lead
French rider Thibaut Pinot, of the FDJ team, remained in the lead of the Tour of Switzerland yesterday after the eighth and penultimate stage won by Astana cyclist Alexey Lutsenko.
Kazakhstan’s Lutsenko took the honours over the 152.5km stage in and around Bern. Belgium’s Jan Bakelants, of AG2R, and France’s Warren Barguil of the Giant team came in second and third respectively.
“This is the biggest win of my career,” said Lutsenko, a former under-23 world champion. “I paced my attack 20km from the finish. I wasn’t too worried about Bakelants as I knew I could beat him in a sprint.”
Pinot again lost time in the overall standings as closest rival Geraint Thomas of the Sky team chipped three seconds off the Frenchman’s lead. He has now surrendered a total of 13 seconds over the last three stages which could prove costly in today’s concluding stage, a 38km time trial on the streets of Bern. Pinot will take an lead of 34 seconds over Thomas into today’s finale while Slovenia’s Simon Spilak is 47 seconds off the lead.

Froome’s motorhome plan for Tour scuppered by UCI
Team Sky’s plan to put Chris Froome up in a private motorhome for the Tour de France was scuppered on Friday when cycling’s governing body ruled that riders must stay in official hotels during all road stage races.
The team wanted the 2013 champion to stay in a motorhome during next month’s race to avoid having to adapt to different hotel conditions on a daily basis.
However, the International Cycling Union (UCI) would not sanction the proposal.
Sky tried out the motorhome setup with Richie Porte in last month’s Giro d’Italia.
Team principal Dave Brailsford feels some hotels provided this year were “not great” and says that being able to sleep in familiar surroundings would help to improve the daily recovery process as “sport science is massive on sleep at the moment”.
The gruelling three-week Tour will be held from July 4-26.