Posted at 6:22 a.m., Thursday, July 26, 2007
Cycling: Bennati wins stage; Contador takes Tour lead
Associated Press
CASTELSARRASIN, France — Italy's Daniele Bennati won the 17th stage of the Tour de France and Spain's Alberto Contador became the new overall leader today, a day after Michael Rasmussen was sent home for lying to his team in another devastating jolt to cycling's premier event.Bennati won a sprint at the end of the 117-mile ride from Pau to Castelsarrasin, as the doping-marred Tour staggered north toward its finish Sunday in Paris.
Bennati, riding for the Lampre Fondital team, won a Tour stage for the first time. He led a small breakaway group and finished in 4 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds. Markus Fothen of Germany was second and Martin Elmiger of Switzerland was third.
Contador earned the leader's yellow jersey. He had been second overall to Rasmussen after Wednesday's last ride in the Pyrenees, when the Dane's Rabobank team took him out of the race.
Rasmussen was ousted by his team for lying about his whereabouts during pre-race training, the third blow this week to the venerable 104-year-old Tour. In recent days, two riders _ including star Alexandre Vinokourov _ were thrown out
