Rodriguez wins as Contador goes on the attack

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Joaquin Rodriguez wins, Tour de France 2010, stage 12

Joaquin Rodriguez outsprinted Alberto Contador in Mende today to take stage 12 of the Tour de France. At 3.1km the climb to Mende aerodrome is one of the shortest classified climbs in the race, but metre for metre it provided more drama than any other.

As the remnants of the early break were scattered back down the climb that averages 10.1% but hits over 14% in places, they were swept up one-by-one by the bunch, even though the general contenders were playing a waiting game.

Simon Richardson
Simon Richardson
Magazine editor

Editor of Cycling Weekly magazine, Simon has been working at the title since 2001. He first fell in love with cycling in 1989 when watching the Tour de France on Channel 4, started racing in 1995 and in 2000 he spent one season racing in Belgium. During his time at CW (and Cycle Sport magazine) he has written product reviews, fitness features, pro interviews, race coverage and news. He has covered the Tour de France more times than he can remember along with the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games and many other international and UK domestic races. He became the 134-year-old magazine's 13th editor in 2015 and can still be seen riding bikes around the lanes of Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Albeit a bit slower than before.