Cycling: Contador has rivals covered

It will almost certainly be confirmed overnight that Alberto Contador has won the 2009 Tour de France - but what is not known is whether the most gut-busting stage of all, up Mont Ventoux, will confirm him as the race's greatest climber ever and if Britain's Bradley Wiggins can bump Lance Armstrong off the podium.

The 21-km, leg-breaking, lung-bursting ride up Mont Ventoux could see the Spaniard capture the title of the greatest climber in Tour de France history. Or it might not. He has such a comfortable lead, Contador may not feel he needs to stretch any envelopes.

In one sense, he already has. One measurement of Contador's astonishing sprint-climb to Verbier last weekend had him ascending at the rate of 6116 feet per hour. That is, by some distance, the fastest rate of climb ever recorded in the Tour de France, faster even than Lance Armstrong's blazing ascent up Alpe d'Huez in 2004.

While Verbier is nowhere near the test that the taller, windier Ventoux is (gusts can get up to 320km/hr), Contador could be set to break Lance Armstrong's record of 50 minutes for the ascent - set in 2002 when Armstrong chased Richard Virenque up the imposing peak the locals call "the giant of Provence".

To do that, the diminutive Spaniard would have to produce an average of close to 400 watts of power for the entire climb (he produced 420 watts at Verbier). Next time you are in the gym and on an exercise bike, set the bike for such a wattage output - most people, even decent cyclists, struggle to keep that up for five minutes, let alone 50.

It was on Ventoux's slopes in 1967, under the blistering heat, that the bulldog of British cycling died - Tom Simpson, from a mixture of exhaustion, drugs and dehydration.

The main question in the 167km Stage 20 from Montelimar to the ascent that Armstrong calls the toughest in France is whether he'll be on the podium with the Spaniard when the race finishes tomorrow night on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Friday's relatively flat stage from Bourgoin-Jallieu to Aubenas did little to change the race standings, though an ever-opportunistic Armstrong shaved off four seconds to his deficit to Andy Schleck in second - making up for what he lacks in physical strength with guile.

Britain's Mark Cavendish won the stage in a sprint, collecting his fifth stage victory at this race - the most by a rider in a single Tour since Armstrong in 2004.

Armstrong, returning to cycling's main event at age 37 and as one of the oldest men in the peloton, has far more than held his own this year: He trails the Spaniard by 5 minutes, 21 seconds. Schleck, of Luxembourg, is 4:11 off the leader's pace.

While he has an outside - if unlikely - shot at overtaking Schleck, Armstrong's big concerns are those behind him. Bradley Wiggins of Britain is only 15 seconds away, and Schleck's older brother Frank is 38 seconds behind the American.

Contador, whom Armstrong and other Astana riders have criticised for an apparent lack of teamwork, says his first job is to win the race - but he'll lend a hand to Armstrong if he can.

Wiggins will carry a picture of Simpson - a man he regards as a hero - up the climb to what he hopes will reward him with a podium finish and the highest placing by a Briton in the Tour.

There is one huge difference between Wiggins and the Briton whose ghostly wheel tracks he will be following on the 20km steepest part of the ascent. Simpson was using drugs, Wiggins is not.

"I don't think that detracts from the guy himself," Wiggins insists. "When you read about Simpson in encyclopedias then all it says is he died on the Ventoux on drugs. They don't tend to mention what he achieved, or that he wasn't the only rider doing that."

Simpson's huge consumption of carrots - two or three kilos in one sitting - is one example, as was the widespread belief that dehydration was beneficial, one contributing factor to his death.

Wiggins, in stark contrast to Simpson, is riding clean and is prepared to demonstrate it in wholly unprecedented ways. He's now asked the UCI, cycling's governing body, to publish his blood values taken for their biological passport programme - an anti-doping system that monitors riders' physiological data.

He describes the 20km Ventoux as a "one-hour time trial" and that his tactic will be "to stay close to Lance".