Rodriguez beats Contador to win Tour's 12th stage

MENDE, France — Joaquin Rodriguez of Spain won a hilly 12th stage of the Tour de France on Friday, leading a two-man sprint to the finish with overall contender Alberto Contador.Rodriguez and the defending champion burst from the pack in a steep final climb, leaving behind race leader Andy Schleck and overtaking several breakaway riders. Contador ended up gaining 10 seconds on his rival and now trails Schleck by only 31 seconds.Rodriguez, a 10-year veteran on the Katusha team riding in his first Tour, held off Contador in the last few hundred meters of the 131-mile course from Bourg-de-Peage to Mende.Rodriguez stretched out his arms, looked back and smiled as he nosed Contador at the line in 4 hours, 58 minutes, 26 seconds. Contador's Astana teammate Alexandre Vinokourov was third.Jurgen Van Den Broeck led the next pack that included Schleck, Samuel Sanchez, Denis Menchov and Andreas Kloeden. Levi Leipheimer of the United States finished 17 seconds off the lead as he tries to keep pace in the overall standings and perhaps secure a podium finish in Paris.The finish was destined for drama. In the final kilometers, the pack scaled the La Croix Neuve pass — about 1.2 miles at an average gradient of more than 10 percent.American sprinter Tyler Farrar withdrew from the race because of injuries that he had sustained in previous stages. Farrar finished third in the sprint finish Thursday that featured aggressive riding by HTC Columbia's Mark Renshaw, which got him expelled from the Tour. Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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