The Tour de France is once again surrounded by doping controversy after Spanish rider 'Tricky' Beltran was thrown out of the race last night by his Liquigas team after he tested positive for EPO. The news overshadowed the impressive maiden Tour victory of Luis Leon Sanchez who broke away from the main lead group with 5 km's to go, holding off the charging peleton (containing all the favourites except for Damino Cunego) for a 6 second victory in the stage from Brioude to Aurillac.
But the bigger news of the day was Beltran's positive test. He was immediately suspended by his Liquigas team in a move seemingly designed to ensure the team is not thrown of the race entirely. The ASO (the Tour's organising body) seems to have accepted this and will allow Liquigas to race on for the time being, at least until the B sample is tested. This seems somewhat hypocritical given their decision to throw out Cofidis and Astana last year after riders from those teams tested positive, and given that they prevented Astana from even taking the starting line up in this years event.
But getting back to more important matters...the days stage. The race was hectic despite its fairly short distance with a rapid pace seeing the peleton split up into a number of groups. The only major race favourite to miss the front split was Cunego. And while yesterday it was his poor form that saw him lose time to the leaders, today it was more a case of poor luck. Cunego crashed after 60km's just as CSC began to wind the peleton up in order to chase down a breakaway consisting of yellow jersey hopeful David Millar. While his Lampre team worked hard to get him back to the main group by the final climb, the work told in the closing stages and Cunego was again dropped, and lost another 30 seconds to the elite lead group.
Up front, it was Sanchez burning the candle at both ends. After participating in a mid-race breakaway which was caught, the Spanish time-trial champion decided to try another solo attempt right at the death and succeeded. The result was even more impressive considering the quality of the main group that finished behind him. Former yellow jersey wearer Stefan Schumacher led the main pack home with 'Pippo' Pozzato finishing 3rd. Kim Kirchen was 4th to maintain his race lead and increase his lead in the points competition, while race favourites Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans finished comfortably with the main group.
Thomas Lovkvist saw his lead in the White Jersey competition reduced, as he finished in the second main group on the road with Cunego, losing around 30 seconds to Andy Schleck. With another two cat-2 climbs on the day the lead in the King of the Mountains competition changed hands for a second straight day. After leading the breakaway over both mountains, David De La Fuente has grabbed the polka dot jersey by a single point from previous leaders Sylvain Chavanel and Thomas Voeckler.
Yellow Jersey - Kim Kirchen
Green Jersey - Kim Kirchen
Polka Dot Jersey - David De La Fuente
White Jersey - Thomas Lovkvist
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