INQUIRER Sports

ARCALIS -- Cadel Evans showed the first signs of his new, attacking self on Friday's first day in the mountains as Tour de France rival Alberto Contador usurped teammate Lance Armstrong.

Evans was the first of the big favourites to attack inside the final three kilometers of the 10.1-kilometer climb to the first summit finish of the race, a move which was eventually countered by Armstrong.

Moments later an acceleration by Evans' Silence teammate Jurgen Van den Broeck was the spur for Contador to bolt, and the Spaniard's move left everyone in his wake.

Contador, who famously beat Evans by 23 seconds to win the 2007 Tour on the penultimate stage time trial, is now second overall at 06 secs behind new race leader Rinaldo Nocentini.

Armstong finished in a 10-man group which notably contained Evans, Andy Schleck, Carlos Sastre and Russian Denis Menchov 19secs behind Contador to drop one place down to third at 08 adrift.

Evans showed rare aggression at last month's Dauphine Libere race, a major warm-up for the Tour de France.

And it looks like there could be more to come.

"I had to give it a bit of a go and give it a try, it's not the same as racing on the flat, you have to go for it and hope you have done enough," he said.

"Sometimes it's better than staying on the wheel, but you risk going out, expending a load of energy, getting caught and then dropped.

"We had to do something, I am not exactly in contention at this point and I couldn't sit back."

Astana are in a strong position, they set the pace and pushed things along.

"With Contador and Armstrong in second and third, and Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden in fourth and sixth respectively, Astana indeed will be hard to beat over the next two days of climbing.

Their only weakness could be the uncertainty surrounding the relationship between their two supposed leaders.

Armstrong brushed off any concern after Contador usurped him to move into second place despite making strong hints earlier this week he will aim for an eighth Tour de France crown.

"Things didn't really go according to the plan we mapped out before," said Armstrong.

"I was a little surprised, but it doesn't matter. Like I said yesterday, I expected him to assert himself in the race and he did that."

Contador looked strong when he launched an attack inside the stage's last two kilometers, while Armstrong was content to stay back and control Evans, Schleck, and Spain's defending champion Sastre.

"When you've got a guy away, like I've said all along, you just got to stay on one wheel," said Armstrong.

"Schleck put in some good moves, Cadel put in some good moves, but you gotta just stay on the wheel - that's bike racing."It's not a very steep climb, so the speed was quite high."

But the seven-times Tour de France winner said he was feeling good after the steep 10.1km climb up to Andorra's Arcalis ski station.

"I feel good, it was a fine day, I think overall we're fine as a team," said cancer-survivor Armstrong.

"It may be tough, it's high and the elevation hurts, but I don't feel as knackered as I thought I'd be."

Team manager Johan Bruyneel said he had not given the team a specific plan to attack and said Contador had acted on his own initiative.

"We didn't have a specific plan to attack, our plan was to maintain our collective strength first and wait for attacks from the others," said Bruyneel.

"Alberto counter-attacked after an attack, our plan had been for the riders to communicate and respond."

No one had specific instructions to go out and attack," he added."I had no race radio at that time or TV, so it was something they decided themselves."