Denmark's Michael Rasmussen reinforced his grip on the Tour de France yellow jersey after finishing second in a drama-filled 14th stage won by Spaniard Alberto Contador on Sunday.
Contador, of the Discovery Channel team, claimed his first ever Tour stage after countering an attack by Rasmussen in the final 300 metres of the 197km race from Mazamet to here on Sunday.
Rabobank climber Rasmussen, the subject of doping suspicion following recent revelations that he has missed four random doping controls in the past two years, now has a very real chance of winning the yellow jersey.
The 33-year-old, a former two-time winner of the race's 'King of the Mountains' polka dot jersey, has a 2min 23sec lead on Contador ahead of Monday's 15th monster climbing stage from Foix to Loudenvielle. Some of his big rivals lost out big time on what was the first of three days in total in the Pyrenees.
Cadel Evans, who began the day in second overall at 1:00, dropped to third at 3:04 after failing to match Rasmussen and Contador's pace in the final kilometres of what turned out to be a thrilling race of attrition.
In fourth place is American Levi Leipheimer, at 4:29, while Germany's Andreas Kloden is fifth a 4:38 ahead of CSC rider Carlos Sastre, at 5:50. Alexandre Vinokourov, who relaunched his stricken bid for victory on Saturday by winning the time trial, suffered a dramatic collapse on the first of the stage's two major climbs.
Rasmussen is now in prime position to claim what could turn out to be a suspicion-laden Tour victory, but he concedes he has not won the race yet.
"I'm thinking about tomorrow before I'm thinking about Paris. There's still another two tough stages in the Pyrenees, and another time trial," he said.
Rasmussen brushed off claims that a discussion between him and Contador before their duel to the finish line was to arrange who would win the stage.
"No, it was definitely not," he added. "This is the Tour de France, and there are no gifts here. Contador deserved his win."
Contador's gesture seemed to contradict that statement, but he said they had simply wanted to increase the lead on their rivals. "But we still fought for it. Rasmussen attacked first then I managed to counter him in the final 200 metres," said Contador, who is the first rider to win here since former team-mate Lance Armstrong, in 2004.
"To win here, at Plateau de Beille, with all the crowds is just fantastic." The Tour de France meanwhile looks over for Vinokourov, who finished in the region of 20 minutes adrift.
His Astana team-mate Kloden was a lot stronger, staying with all the favourites until the start of the day's final climb, some of whose gradients were at a punishing 9.5 percent.
However the German, who began the day at fourth overall at 2:34 behind Ramussen, was left trailing nine kilometres from the summit as the pace of Discovery Channel's Yaroslav Popovych continued taking a costly toll. Further on Evans, who had impressed by coming second behind a resurgent Vinokourov on Saturday's 54km time trial, saw his valiant efforts tail off and he soon peeled off with less than 5km to race.
The 30-year-old Aussie eventually trailed in seventh at 1:52 behind Contador, who - having proved his worth in both the time trial and in the mountains - is now a big contender for overall victory.
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