Contador in yellow after stage 17

CASTELSARRASIN, France (Reuters) -- Spaniard Alberto Contador officially took the overall lead of the Tour de France after Thursday's 17th stage, which started without previous yellow jersey holder Michael Rasmussen and the Cofidis team.

Rasmussen was sacked by his Rabobank team, who said he had lied about his training whereabouts, and the Dane was not at the start of the stage.
In line with race regulations, no one wore the yellow jersey during the 188.5km stage won by Italian Daniele Bennati.
Contador, the Paris-Nice winner, finished in the bunch and has a lead of one minute and 53 seconds over Australian Cadel Evans, who is unlikely to close the gap in Saturday's decisive time trial from Cognac to Angouleme.
"It is strange to take yellow in such circumstances," Contador told reporters. "But it can happen, sometimes it is because the leader has crashed."
Asked if he thought Rasmussen's exclusion was fair, the 24-year-old said: "I am not here to judge him. It is the decision made by his team and I am not aware enough of the situation to judge what happened."
Contador believes he is now favorite to win the Tour, although he admits he is likely to lose time to Evans on the final time trial. "Of course, it depends on the day. It is over 55km, it's a long way to go and the jersey will be hard to keep.
"But if you look at the results of the last time trial, I have my chance and I will do anything I can to keep it." Contador finished last Saturday's time trial in Albi 1:04 behind Predictor Lotto rider Evans.
Rasmussen had led the race since taking the eighth stage and had also won on Wednesday. His Rabobank team decided to continue in the Tour although Russian Denis Menchov quit halfway through the stage from Pau to Castelsarrasin.
Lampre rider Benatti outsprinted German Markus Fothen of the Gerolsteiner team to win on Thursday and Swiss Martin Elminger came home third for the AG2r team.
"We have to fight against doping. I hope the sport will see the end of the tunnel because I think there are riders who do their job honestly," Benatti told reporters.

Hushovd sprints to Tour stage win

JOIGNY, France (Reuters) -- Norway's Thor Hushovd claimed his first victory of the year when he clinched the fourth stage of the Tour de France, a 193km trek from Villers-Cotterets to Joigny on Wednesday.

The Credit Agricole rider, who won the green jersey in 2005, launched the bunch sprint 350 meters from the finish line to edge Barloworld's South African rider Robert Hunter.
Spaniard Oscar Freire, who has yet to win a stage this year, was third for the Rabobank team.
Hushovd's fifth victory on the Tour means the Norwegian leapfrogs German Andreas Kloeden for second place overall thanks to time bonuses, with Briton David Millar now out of the top three.
Swiss Fabian Cancellara, who finished safely in the main pack, retained the leader's yellow jersey.
"It was a pretty cool day because the team did the job even though there was some wind," Cancellara told a news conference.
Belgian Tom Boonen was a disappointing eighth in the stage but retained the green jersey.
Hushovd, who won last year's opening prologue and the closing sprint on the Champs-Elysees, paid tribute to Australian team-mate Julian Dean, who piloted him through the pack in the final kilometer.
"He is the best in the world to launch the sprints," said Hushovd.
Frenchman Matthieu Sprick launched a breakaway after 30km and was followed by compatriot Sylvain Chavanel, Spaniards Juan Antonio Flecha and Gorka Verdugo, and Germany's Christian Knees.
The fugitives built a four-minute gap but were swallowed by the peloton with just 7km remaining.
The Caisse d'Epargne team were reduced to eight men after Spaniard Xavier Zandio retired with a fractured collarbone following a crash early in the stage.
"He fractured his right collarbone, he really cannot go on," said manager Jose-Luis Jaimerena. "It is a huge loss for the team because he is a rider who can work on any type of course. It's a pity."
Another rider, Remy di Gregorio of the Francaise des Jeux team, was involved in the crash and sustained an elbow injury.
Di Gregorio, however, managed to reach the finish line almost eight minutes after Hushovd.