GUEUGNON, France – Cadel Evans and Andy Schleck will be among the Tour de France contenders keeping their eyes glued to Lance Armstrong and his RadioShack team Saturday as the seventh stage takes the race into the Alps.

Ahead of the end of the sixth stage Friday Armstrong’s deficit to Australia’s Evans, the best placed contender in third place overall at 39secs, was 1min 51sec.

The first of three days in the Alps Saturday is a 165.5km ride from Tournus in southern Burgundy to the Alpine ski station of Les Rousses.

Despite the fact an already beat-up peloton will tackle five medium-sized climbs before the 14km ascent to Rousses, there have been hints the race’s big guns will keep their powder dry for Sunday’s more difficult stage to Morzine-Avoriaz.

In comparison, stage seven is more of an appetizer — the final climb’s average gradient is just five percent and it has been suggested that Swiss race leader Fabian Cancellara, who is not a climbing specialist, will emerge with the yellow jersey still on his back.

Yet both Geraint Thomas, Team Sky’s Welsh debutant, and Evans, a former two-time runner-up, have a great chance of taking the race lead as both are only 23 and 39sec behind Cancellara respectively.

Nevertheless, Evans will be keeping a close eye on attacks from Armstrong, who has time to make up on all his yellow jersey rivals after losing time on the tough stage three over the cobbles.

“Even in these early days people will be looking for opportunities, and there’s a couple of guys on the back foot,” said Evans.

“I know how it is in that position, you’ve got to look for opportunities everywhere.”

Evans, Schleck and Contador were all big winners on stage three’s ride over the cobbles.

Luxemburger Schleck is now sixth overall 30sec behind Evans but 1:11 ahead of Armstrong while Contador is ninth at 1:01 behind Evans and 50sec ahead of Armstrong.

Schleck has come into the Tour as the main challenger to two-time winner Contador after he finished runner-up to the Spanish all-rounder in 2009, albeit over four minutes adrift.

And the Saxo Bank climbing specialist seemed to suggest he will be paying special attention to Armstrong.

“There’s two riders I need to pay close attention to, and that’s Armstrong and Contador. They are the strongest. Armstrong’s in good form, better than people might think,” he said.

Thomas, the Welsh former track cyclist, has brought an air of excitement to the Tour after a superb first week of racing.

In doing so he has upstaged team leader Bradley Wiggins, although in reality the situation suits the Londoner who is fully focused on staking his own yellow jersey claim after a fourth place finish in 2009.

Thomas therefore has a great chance of pulling on the yellow jersey himself. That would be considered a huge achievement for his team on their debut, and is a prospect he had never dreamed of.

“It’s quite strange to be in this position, but it’s been a nice first week. It’s not bad really, is it?” he said Friday.

“Obviously if the opportunity arose then I’d definitely try and grab it.”

Article: AFP by: Justin Davis