21 Jul 2010

Contador regrets Schleck chain incident

6:32 am on 21 July 2010

The favourite to win the Tour de France Alberto Contador has issued a public statement expressing his regret about benefitting from rival Andy Schleck's mechanical problem to regain the overall lead on yesterday's 15th stage.

Contador, the defending champion, admits he possibly made a mistake when he and some other leading riders took advantage of Schleck's broken chain and applied the pressure, rather than slow down in keeping with the Tour's tradition of fair play.

The Spaniard retains an eight-second lead over Schleck going into stage 17 following tomorrow's rest day.