Contador steals back seconds on Armstrong

Alberto Contador relaunched his bid for the 2009 yellow jersey on the first mountain stage of the Tour de France after taking back time previously lost to teammate Lance Armstrong.

Speculation since before the race that Contador's Astana team might favour the seven-time champion instead of the much younger Spaniard, who won the race in 2007, has so far failed to abate.

And this latest episode in Astana's mystery book of race strategies, which on Friday saw Contador take 19secs off Armstrong to move up to second overall, has left no one the wiser.

In recent days Armstrong has indicated he will aim for an eighth Tour de France crown, while Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel refuses to reveal who their official team leader is.

Contador's move on Friday meanwhile put his ambitions back in the spotlight, and comments from both Bruyneel and Armstrong hinted there could be discord in the team.

"No one had specific instructions to attack," said Bruyneel when asked if he had given Contador the green light to go.

Armstrong admitted Contador's move had not been expected: "I was a bit surprised."

He added: "Things didn't go according to the plan we'd set out earlier, but it didn't matter. It was a fine day overall."

While Contador finished the race 3:26 behind new yellow jersey holder Rinaldo Nocentini, Armstrong and his group came over the finish at 3:47.

The American is still third overall, however, at just 08secs off the leading pace with teammate Levi Leipheimer fourth at 39.

With Andreas Kloden in sixth, one place behind surprise Briton Bradley Wiggins, it means Astana still have four riders in the top ten.

However, ahead of two more days in the Pyreenes, Bruyneel would have preferred Nocentini to have gained much more than the slim six-second advantage he has on Contador, so his AG2R team could take over the responsibility of defending the yellow jersey.

"Six seconds is not a lot. We'd hoped for a bit more. Hopefully AG2R are now going to honour their responsibility of defending the race lead," added the Belgian.

Armstrong had first shown his yellow jersey ambitions on a calamitous third stage on Monday when he took 41secs off Contador, who was trapped behind in windy conditions after the Columbia team had forced a damaging echelon.

The next day the American moved to within 0.22secs of the race lead then being held by Fabian Cancellara of Saxo Bank after Astana won the team time trial.

On the first day in the mountains on Friday there were no spectacular fireworks between the big contenders for the race's yellow jersey.

However, Contador attacked with apparent ease inside the final two kilometres of the 10.1km climb to the race's first summit finish.

Armstrong simply sat back and kept a tight rein on their yellow jersey rivals, Cadel Evans of Australia, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg and Spain's defending champion Carlos Sastre, before finishing 19secs after Contador.