Updated on
Summary
The battle for temporary command of the yellow and green jerseys on the Tour de France provided some thrilling racing, and score-settling, on the 14th stage from Colmar to Besancon Saturday. Russian Sergei Ivanov of Katusha came over the finish line solo after decisively attacking his group of 11 breakaway companions 11km from home. It was only 5min 36sec later, when Italys Rinaldo Nocentini, racing for AG2R, crossed with all the race favourites, that he was confirmed as still being in possession of the race leaders yellow jersey. With three stages in the mountains spread over the next four days the battle for overall victory between Lance Armstrongs Astana team and their rivals was postponed as the teams so far devoid of stage success went on the hunt. But on a day marked tragically by the death of a woman spectator hit by a police motorcycle, there was no lack of drama with scores, apparently, being settled. Armstrong and his Astana team gave the thumbs-up to an early 12-man breakaway which, for most of the day, had his former teammate Hincapie, now racing for Columbia, in the virtual yellow jersey. Hincapie, the only rider at Armstrongs side in all seven of his Tour triumphs, came over the finish line 16secs behind Ivanov but in the end his efforts were all for nothing. Thanks to some chasing help from the Garmin team, AG2R were able to keep Nocentini in the yellow jersey as they raced over the finish 5:36 behind Ivanov.
