Contador climbs into Yellow.

In the end it all mattered for nothing, the specualtion, the drama, the questions and the alternate endings were seemingly blown away in stage 15 on the climb to the summit at Verbier. Alberto Contador just simply rode away from eveyone else to prove what we all really already knew - he has no peer when it comes to climbing.

The first four climbs of the day were all category 3 and the peleton allowed a small group a minutes grace to go ahead and play around for KOM points - end result Pellizotti extends his lead in the polka dot jersey to 9 points. They got back together before another group of attacks came for the penultimate climb and that break got out to a four minute advantage - but then it was time to get serious. Astana and Liquigas took over at the front of the peleton and by the time the 8.8km climb to the top of Verbier loomed the peleton were a minute and a half behind the lone ranger - Spilak of Lampre - he capitualted though and ended up crossing the line some 7 minutes behind the winner. Ouch! Imagine how much he was hurting post race!

So the pace ramped up, non climbers got dropped, Saxo Bank jumped on the front and dropped even more form the front group, when Fabian Cancellara finished his turn at the front there were only 6 riders left. With 6km to go Frank Schleck attacked, Armstong and Wiggins pulled the group up to his wheel, Andy Schleck looked like he was ready to go, the old one-two but then the inevitable happened, Contador just went. His acceleration was so powerful and yet so gracefull, he danced away from his rivals at a very rapid rate, it was brutal. Andy Schleck gave chase and he quickly put a gap on the rest of the big names who all seemed to be floundering, but he could not catch Contador

Even if he had it in him, Armstrong was not going to chase his team mate, Cadel Evans had nothing, Sastre took some time to get going, Nibaldi saved his best for the last 200m and jumped up for 3rd, Frank Schleck was consistent to the line for fourth. Bradley Wiggins continued to show his amazing transformation from Olympic track star to mountain climber and GC contender with an brillaint effort to finish 5th, riding in with renowned climbers Frank Schleck and Carlos Sastre. Lance seemed to struggle and was on team mate Klodens wheel for the final 2km.

Contador was breathtaking to watch - i love seeing this man climb. He danced on the pedals, every time he sensed he was slowing he was out of the saddle and accelerating. The young Spaniard put 43 seconds on Andy Schleck in the space of 2 or 3 km and held that to the line - easily.

The guy is the king of stage race cycling

As Lance said afterwards "When Alberto went he showed he’s the best rider in the race, certainly the best climber. You know, when everyone’s on the limit and you can accelerate again and I’ve been there, that’s how you win the Tour. Hats off to him."

But as Andy Schleck said "he had the yellow jersey in Paris-Nice and he lost it there. The race will not be over until the Champs Élysées, He's a bit stronger than me, but he will have some pressure on him in the next days. It will not be a piece of cake for him"

Awesome - another climbing battle!

Andy Schleck is only going to win this race by outclimbing Contador and i cant see it happening. But he will give it a red hot crack and you might see the peleton falling to pieces. The time trial will be interesting as Contador, Armstrong Kloden and Wiggins have the ability to take a lot of time out of the other riders - Cadel might even get some back but he went awful up the Verbier.

Whatever happens i hope they go all out on the Ventoux - that climb makes the Verbier look like nothing. Ventoux is 21km at an average of 7.6% with much of it over 10% gradient. Can't wait.

Either way - Contador has it all but sewn up - but things happen in cycling.

Full 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


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 Klöden (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) Française des Jeux 0:03:09
10 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:03:25
11 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo TestTeam 0:03:52
12 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:03:59
13 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - HTC 0:04:05
14 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0:04:27
15 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - HTC 0:04:38

Mountains classification
1 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 109 pts
2 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 101
3 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 65
4 Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 64
5 Christophe Kern (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 63
6 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 56
7 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 56
8 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 52
9 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 46
10 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 45