by Justin Davis

BOURG-SAINT-MAURICE, France, July 21, 2009 (AFP) – Italian Franco Pellizotti took another step towards being crowned ‘King of the Mountains’ at the Tour de France by tightening his grip on the climbers’ polka dot jersey on Tuesday.

On the second of three days in the Alps the Liquigas rider was one of the main protagonists in an early breakaway group, which he instigated to make sure of grabbing the points available at the summit of each climb.

Pellizotti failed to win the stage, but finished the 159km ride on a total of 159 points, with Spaniard Egoi Martinez, who gave up his bid, at least temporarily on Tuesday, in second on 101.

Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo is third overall at 97.

“I’ve got great form at the moment,” said Pellizotti, who finished 11secs behind stage winner Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel.

“I knew the stage would be difficult and that the breakaway would start early so I attacked right from the start.

“There were quite a few points on offer today. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to win the stage. Astarloza attacked at the right time.”

After 24.4km of climbing Pellizotti came over the top of the Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard in first place to take 20 points, with fellow breakaway rider Vladimir Karpets, who is not in contention for the jersey, in second.

Fedrigo, of the Bbox-Bouygues team, came over in third to take 16 points and the Frenchman confirmed his interest in the prestigious climbers’ jersey by trying to shake Pellizotti off on the day’s second climb.

Pellizotti responded well, however, and reacted at exactly the right moment when Belgian Jurgen Van den Broeck, of Silence, accelerated away from the group near the summit of the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard.

The Italian did well to come over in first place because despite being rated a category one climb, in theory less difficult than the ‘hors categorie’ (unclassified) climbs, it gave him double points because it was the last climb of the day.

While Pellizotti took 30 points, Fedrigo came over the top in fifth to claim 16.

Only two stages in the high mountains remain on the race, the killer 17th stage from Bourg Saint Maurice to Le Grand Bornand on Wednesday and Saturday’s penultimate stage to the summit of Mont Ventoux.

Pellizotti added: “Wednesday is a real hard stage, we’ll see how the legs recover tonight.”