Vinokourov tops Ventoux, Leipheimer holds lead

T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov was the strongest man on the baldest mountain today, tearing up the field on the climb to Mont Ventoux. Discovery Channel's Lance Armstrong was put into difficulty a number of times on the legendary climb, but rode his own race and limited the damage to Vinokourov, who confirmed his status as a legitimate Tour podium pick, depending on T-Mobile team politics. Vinokourov put more than 30 seconds into all the other Dauphiné GC contenders, but it was not enough for the race lead. Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer, who rode with Vinokourov after his key break, eventually fell back to, then behind, Discovery Channel's Lance Armstrong to lose 46 seconds, finishing 7th on the day. It wasn't enough to push Leipheimer out of the race lead. Armstrong himself lost 37 seconds to T-Mobile's Kazakh, finishing 4th on the day, and improved to just 21 seconds behind Leipheimer's race lead. Vinokourov improved to 3rd overall, at 26 seconds. Phonak's Floyd Landis, 5th on the day, sandwiched between Armstrong and Leipheimer, is the only other rider inside of 2 minutes behind Leipheimer on GC. It's another strong day for the Americans. Top 10: 1) Alexandre Vinokourov, T-Mobile, 4:07:23 2) Jose Gomez Marchante, Saunier Duval-Prodir, at :06 3) Wim Van Huffel, Davitamon-Lotto, at :16 4) Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, at :37 5) Floyd Landis, Phonak, at :41 6) Andrey Kashechkin, Credit Agricole, at :43 7) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, at :46 8) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 1:31 9) Nicolas Fritsch, Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 1:36 10) David Moncoutie, Cofidis, 1:45 Landaluze at 8th on the day, 11th overall, is currently the ranking Euskaltel-Euskadi, one year after they won the Dauphiné with Iban Mayo. Also: Yahoo! Sport | Armstrong back in contention as Vinokourov tames Ventoux Points out that Botero had a very bad day today, finishing 16th, about 3 minutes back of Vinokourov. Bad news for the big guys: Magnus Backstedt didn't take the start today, preferring to go back to Wales to try to recover in advance of the Tour next month. Backstedt lost more than 8 minutes on yesterday's time trial, and says he's producing "lactic acid extremely quickly." PezCyclingNews.com | Dauphine Libere St. 4 - Vino On The Ventoux cyclingnews.com | Full results