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BEIJING, July 17 (Xinhuanet) -- At the Tour De France, the riders were tackling the toughest portion of the Pyrenees mountains in the 12th stage of the competition, and as if that weren't hard enough, they also had to do it in wind and rain.
But Joaquim Rodriguez of the Katusha Team powered through the miserable conditions to claim his second stage victory of this Tour.
The sun was shining at the start of the day, but the weather grew progressively worse.
The 12th stage marked the end of three days of difficult climbing in the Pyrenees. Rodriguez from Spain began the day more than 20 minutes behind the overall leader Chris Froome, which meant that he was no threat to those at the top of the standings.
As the rain began to fall, so did the riders in the treacherous turns. This cyclist took a small tumble but was unhurt and able to continue immediately.
Alberto Contador, Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali, who were considered Froome's major rivals before he crushed them on the first day of tough climbing in the Pyrenees, tried to test him on the final ascent, taking turns with bursts of accelerations. But he didn't wilt under the pressure. Froome then turned the tables on them, with a turn of speed that shook off all but Quintana before they later caught him up again.
About half way up the final 16-kilometer climb, Rodriguez took the lead and did not let go for the rest of the way.
Froome fought off challenges by Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana to remain comfortably in first place ahead of Tee-jay van Garderen.
Rodriguez rode alone through driving rain to take his second stage victory of this Tour. The Katusha team leader also won a shorter uphill finish on Stage 3.
Froome retained the yellow jersey as the overall leader.
With the Tour now past halfway, Froome remains 2 minutes, 52 seconds ahead of Tee-jay van Garderen, the American leader of the BMC team who is proving resilient in second place, and 3 minutes and 9 seconds ahead of Quintana, the Mo-vistar team's Colombian rider who is third overall.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
