24 Jul 2008

Spaniard takes Tour lead, but Evans lurks

6:17 am on 24 July 2008

There's a new leader on the Tour de France but the Australian Cadel Evans is still the popular choice to win this years race.

The Spaniard Carlos Sastre won the critical last mountain stage up to the infamous Alpe D'Huez to take the overall lead by one minute 34 seconds from Cadel Evans, who was 7th on today's stage and lies fourth overall, but the Australian is expected to gain at least two minutes on Castre in this weekend's decisive 53 kilometre time trial.

Frank Schleck is second overall at one minute 24 seconds, and the Austrian Bernhard Kohl is third, one minute 33 seconds off the pace.

New Zealand's Julian Dean is 112th overall, 38 minutes down on the leader.