Armstrong Vs. Contador at Tour

The pack with American seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, bottom right, speeds down...

The pack with American seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, bottom right, speeds down Envalira Pass, Pyrenees mountains, during the 8th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 176.5 kilometers (109.7 miles) with start in Andorra and finish in Saint-Girons, France, Saturday July 11, 2009.

(Christophe Ena/AP Photo)

The 26-year-old Contador is already one of cycling's top riders, having won all three Grand Tours of France, Italy and Spain — a feat accomplished only by five riders. Armstrong isn't one of them.

The race has shaped up as a two-man battle between the two Astana stars so far primarily because the other pre-race favorites lost key time in time trials, and are trailing badly.

In order to get back into contention, the rivals tried to attack during the Pyrenees — the first big mountain challenges of the three-week race. So far, they've had no success against Astana.

The first salvo Saturday came from two-time Tour runner-up Cadel Evans, who burst out of the peloton on the first of the day's three climbs — the Category 1 Envalira Pass — at the 14.6-mile mark. He and others built a lead on the pack of about 2 minutes, but the Australian was reeled in after about 39 miles.

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On the Agnes pass, the day's last big climb, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg led the attack — but he too couldn't shake the Astana train.

Nocentini almost lost his yellow jersey when the main race favorites — including Armstrong and Contador — left him behind in the last of the climbs. He credited an escort from his AG2R La Mondiale teammate Stephane Goubert for helping him catch up.

Astana holds four of the top six spots. Levi Leipheimer of the United States is 39 seconds off the pace in fourth, while Andreas Kloeden is sixth, 54 seconds behind.

Some riders dreaded the steep opening to the stage.

"Today's stage starts off going uphill for 20 miles!!" Leipheimer tweeted. "That's a rude awakening, plenty of riders will be looking to get in the breakaway."

He was right.

Sanchez, who won the Paris-Nice stage race in March, led a four-person breakaway toward the finish line. He looked skyward and tapped his chest after crossing just ahead of France's Sandy Casar and Mikel Astarloza of Spain. They clocked 4 hours, 31 minutes, 50 seconds for the 110-mile trek.