CHERBOURG-EN-COTENTIN, France -- Five years ago, Alberto Contador and Richie Porte were bound as teammates in the Tour de France. But the now rival riders have once again found themselves joined in the worlds biggest bike race, yet not by choice, but as two of the initial big favourites for this years race who are already on the back foot after a disastrous second stage in Normandy on Sunday.Contador (Tinkoff), 33, and Porte (BMC), 31, who rode together on the Saxo team [now Tinkoff] in the 2011 Tour, are now both more than one minute behind the new overall race leader, Slovakian world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), 26. Sagan claimed the leaders yellow jersey from the Stage 1 winner Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), 31, by winning Sundays tough 183-kilometer second stage from Saint L? to Cherbourg-en-Contentin.Many other riders lost time in the stage that finished uphill, including Welshman Geraint Thomas (Sky). But Contador and Porte were the two highest profile losers of the day after seeing their race cruelled by the misfortune of a crash and rear tire puncture, respectively.Both will do well to remember that Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar) lost 1:28 to Tour winner Chris Froome (Sky) in Stage 2 of last years Tour, and 1:04 in Stage 10 in before finishing second overall at 1:20.All but two of the other main favourites for this years Tour are at 14 seconds to Sagan -- Froome, who is in fifth place, Quintana seventh, Irishman Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) 10th, Italian Fabio Aru (Astana) in 11th, Frenchman Romain Bardet (Ag2r) in 17th, and American Tejay van Garderen in 18th. Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) is 28th at 25 seconds and Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) is 31st at the same time.Going into Stage 3, a 223.5km trek from Grandville to Angers, Sagan leads overall by eight seconds on Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe (FDJ) and 10 seconds on Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who finished second and third behind him on Sunday.For Contador, his demise was due to his second crash in as many days with 120km to go. Frenchman Warren Bargueil (Giant-Alpacin), Germans Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) and Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep), Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), and Australian Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange) were also fell Sunday.Worse for Contador, he landed on his left side, which impaired his ability to stay with the overall contenders on the hilly finish when the peloton he had been in was reeling in the remaining breakaway riders one by one all the way to the finish.Contador finished 61st at 48 seconds and is now 62nd overall at 1:02 to Sagan.I lost time that I didnt want to lose, Contador said after the stage. I crashed again, and it left my other side banged up, as well. I tried to minimize the maximum amount of time I lost.Contador remained defiant from the corner he has found himself in, saying: Cycling is like that, and the Tour is unfolding like that for me. Physically, its a setback. I cannot pedal like I want to. Nevertheless, I know thats a consequence of my falls. I want to maintain a high morale. I am still standing, but I am banged up. At least Peter [Sagan] won for the team today.Meanwhile, for Porte, his grief was caused by a rear tire puncture inside the last five kilometres, and on a descent when well-placed on second wheel while the peloton was close to catching the final breakaway riders.Since it was so late in the race, his team car could not get to him to change his wheel, as it was caught behind so many riders who were already dropped. And while the neutral service that attended to Porte took an extraordinary amount of time to attend him, there was no chance of him ever catching the speedy peloton before the finish.With the assistance of three teammates -- German Marcus Burghardt, Frenchman Amael Moinard and Italian Damiano Caruso, -- all Porte could do was limit his losses, which amounted to 1:45 at the finish. Porte is now 81st overall at 1:59 behind Sagan, who, despite his class, is not a rider who threatens to win the Tour overall.After returning to the BMC team bus, Porte spent only a few minutes inside to gather himself before speaking to the media, saying: It was a disaster, but what can you do? You are sitting second wheel in perfect position and I dont know what the hell I hit. But next thing, the rear tire went down. We are going that fast, there is not much you can do in terms of the bike change. By the time Burghardt got back to me, the bunch was gone.Porte said he is still determined to make good of what opportunities now come in the 21-stage Tour, as his team hopes of a podium finish for van Garderen.The Tour is far from over, Porte said. It is quite a hard one to take, but at the end of the day, I guess we just try and pretend it never happened and wait for the mountains to come.Porte was pressed on his history of bad luck, such as last years Giro dItalia, where he was penalised two minutes for receiving a wheel change from fellow Australian Simon Clarke, then on the Orica-GreenEDGE team (now Orica-BikeExchange), not knowing it was illegal.It is kind of like last year in the Giro minus the two minutes, he said. But it probably would have been quicker to take the two-minute penalty than the wheel change I got. But at the end of the day it is only a bike race isnt it? Im sure the sun will come up tomorrow.Told that the Tour is the bike race, Porte replied: Yeah, I guess it is. It is far from over ... maybe in the third week, if we keep it all together, I might be able to go after a stage, too.While Portes time loss would indicate that van Garderen will be BMCs leader now, the American said the team would still continue with a two-pronged attack.The Tour is a marathon. Richie hopefully is able to stay strong in his head and keep fighting, van Garderen said. Were co-leaders. Anything can happen, you know. We saw Contador lost time today, and crashed yesterday, Richie lost time today.Any one of these next 19 days could be my turn for bad luck. So we gotta keep Richie strong and focused, and give him a little morale boost tonight. Air Max Plus Tn Ultra Noir . Terms of the deal were not immediately available. The 26-year-old finished last season with Clevelands Triple-A affiliate in Columbus after signing with the Indians in August. Vapormax 97 Silver Bullet . Uniteds eighth defeat of a wretched campaign means Liverpool, which currently occupies the fourth and final Champions League place, could go nine points clear of its fierce rival by beating West Bromwich Albion on Sunday. Charlie Adam scored both of Stokes goals at Britannia Stadium either side of Robin van Persies equalizer, with a miserable day for seventh-place United capped by first-half injuries to centre halves Jonny Evans and Phil Jones that forced them off. http://www.airmaxpaschere.fr/vapormax-pas-cher/vapormax-flyknit.html . Parker had 26 points and eight assists and San Antonio beat Toronto 112-99 Monday night. "We won that game because of Tony Parkers aggressiveness," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "His juice; his aggression all night long. Air Max 98 Pas Cher Femme .com) - The Montreal Canadiens will try to halt their longest losing streak of the season when they host the struggling New York Islanders in tonights clash at the Bell Centre. Vapormax Plus Pas Cher Homme . Kyle Denbrook, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, took the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday. BOSTON -- Al Horford will be back in the Boston lineup when the Celtics host the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night.Horford, who missed nine games this season because of a concussion, was not with the team in its easy win at Miami on Monday night because his wife gave birth to the couples second child.Amazingly, Horford had to defend not being at the game after a local talk-show host said he should have chartered a jet and joined his team in Florida.My familys very important to me, he said Tuesday. For me, Im in more of a unique situation because this is our first year here (in Boston) and my wife, we all moved in the middle of the pregnancy. And just a lot going on. So I just felt like it was important for me to really be there, supporting her. And we have a son as well.So for her, its been a lot thrown at her these past few months. So I know that it meant a lot for me to be there with her, and knowing our schedule ahead and everything. So Im just very happy that the Celtics really take the time and they consider us not only as players but as people. And people that have families.After Horfords sister came to his defense on Twitter, the player put the whole thing in perspective, saying, I dont really read into any (criticism). I dont read Twitter and stuff, and the radio and all that. I just kind of focus on the court, on my job here, and then off the court on my family.Everybody has their opinion. I respect anything that anybody has to say. I care a lot about the group and our guys. Like I was explaining earlier, for my familys sake it was important for me to be there for them. Just with our transition and everything. So thats that. Now I can put that behind me and get focused again on (Wednesdays game).That contest will be against a Detroit team that won easily beat the Hornets on Tuesday night, a 112-89 win at Charlotte.Give them their due -- four games in five nights, its awfully difficult in this league, Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said of the Hornets.dddddddddddd I think they ran out of gas a little bit in the second half. But still, we did what we were supposed to do. It was important for us to do that, so I was happy.The Pistons won despite the ejection of big man Andre Drummond in the second quarter for throwing an elbow at Roy Hibbert -- a non-believing Drummond laughing and shaking his head as he walked off the court following the flagrant-2 call.Tobias Harris scored 24 points and Marcus Morris and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 18 apiece for the Pistons (9-10).It says a lot about our team, but most importantly about guys like Aron (Baynes) and Jon (Leuer) to fill in for that role and be productive and bring the energy that (Drummond) had when he was out there, Harris said. We just kept playing with them.The Celtics (10-7) cruised to a 112-104 win in Miami and came away saying Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told his players that Boston guard Marcus Smart was a hothead.I was begging for Spoelstra to get a technical foul because he was saying a lot of stuff, Bostons Jae Crowder said. He was everywhere (Monday) night, but thats one of the things he did say. When they went to intentional foul Marcus, it was obvious that what they were trying to do was more than just foul. They were trying to get under his skin and play a little physical, and knowing he wanted to retaliate for the most part. So its just part of the scouting report on I guess Marcus that he wears his emotions on his sleeve.The Pistons and Celtics played Nov. 19 in Auburn Hills, Boston winning 94-92 with Isaiah Thomas scoring 24 points and dishing out eight assists. Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys cheap jerseys Cheap Jersyes Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys cheap jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '