Rodriguez beats Contador in Mende

Rodriguez moved out from the wheel of his Spanish compatriot with 150 metres to go to take his first stage win in the Tour, while Contador finished 10 seconds ahead of his main rival for the yellow jersey Andy Schleck.

Schleck, who was unable to live with the explosive finish of defending champion Contador on the leg-sapping 10.1% climb into the finish, managed to limit his time losses after initially appearing to be in greater trouble, and remains 31 seconds ahead in the general classification.

Rodriguez leapfrogs Luis Leon Sanchez into eighth position on the general classification, while Tyler Farrar's Tour de France came to an end after he abandoned with a wrist injury.

A manic first hour of racing, in which the Saxo Bank team managed to nullify a long succession of attacks, took its toll on even some of the biggest names in the race with Radioshack duo Lance Amstrong and Andreas Kloeden forced to drop back to a second group as an elite peloton comprised of 20 or so riders thundered up the Cote Saint-Barthelemy-le-Plain.

The second group managed to bridge the gap back to the front group over the Col des Nonieres as an 18-man break, including Garmin's Ryder Hesjedal, Astana's Alexandre Vinokourov and Cervelo's Thor Hushovd, formed.

The presence of Hesjedal - 12th on GC, 5:42 behind Schleck - and Vinokourov - 14th at 6:31 - meant that the Saxo Bank domestiques spent a long afternoon in the sun, striving to keep the lead under control.

Hushovd took advantage of the intermediate sprints at Mariac and Langogne to pick up valuable points and win back the green jerseys from rival Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre), while BBox-Bouygues Telecom's Anthony Charteau did likewise in the mountains classification, winning the polka dot jersey from compatriot Jerome Pineau (Quick Step), who had been involved in a crash towards the start of the stage.

With 45 kilometres remaining, Vinokourov, Kloeden, Hesjedal and Caisse d'Epargne's Vasil Kiryienka attacked from the breakaway, soon building up a lead of four minutes over the peloton where Liquigas and Cervelo moved quickly to help out an exhausted-looking Saxo Bank team.

The two teams, helped by the incomparable Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank), whittled the quartet's lead down to two minutes and 30 seconds with 20 kilometres remaining.

First Hesjedal then Kloeden were distanced as the leaders hit the short but punishingly steep final climb of the day with 3km remaining before Vinokourov attacked Kiryienka to go off in pursuit of a solo victory, much in the same way he had done at Liege-Bastogne-Liege earlier in the season.

Ag2r's John Gadret had a brave attack from the peloton chased down, before Rodriguez flew off the front 2km from home with Jurgen van den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto) in his wheel.

That was the signal for Contador to launch his attack, and while Van den Broeck faded, Contador bridged the gap to Rodriguez, and led his fellow countryman up much of the climb, all the while closing the gap to team-mate Vinokourov out in front.

Schleck was unable to respond to Contador's sudden change of pace, though gradually raised his tempo to string the lead group out to just a few elite names.

With Contador under pressure to take as much time out of Schleck as possible, Rodriguez sat on his wheel as they passed Vinokourov, before moving out at the last moment to win the sprint.

The Kazakh banged his fist on his handlebars in frustration as he rolled in four seconds back, while Van den Broeck led home the third group containing Schleck, Kloden, Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) 10 seconds adrift.

Saturday's 13th stage takes the peloton 196 kilometres from Rodez to Revel in what will be the last chance for the sprinters to grab a stage win before the race moves into the Pyrenees.

Source: eurosport.co.uk