German Heinrich Haussler overcame the rain and cold to win Friday's hilly 200-km 13th stage of the Tour de France as the weather blunted the ambitions of the main contenders for overall victory. The Australian-born Haussler crowned his best professional season with a stage win in Colmar after a long break during which he dropped his companions one by one to finish on his own. With several tricky climbs, including the first category Platzerwasel 60km from the finish, the stage looked a promising terrain for attacks. But the favorites seemed content to stick together until the finish line and as a result, Italian Rinaldo Nocentini retained his six seconds lead over Alberto Contador of Spain. “It was a hard day as we lost 20 degrees in 24 hours. Nobody took any risks with the rain and I managed to keep my jersey,” Nocentini told reporters. Seven-time champion Lance Armstrong, who looked very fit in the day's climbs, stayed third, two seconds behind his Astana teammate. Cervelo team rider Haussler, winner of a Paris-Nice stage and runner-up in the Tour of Flanders and Milan-San Remo this season, finished four minutes 11 seconds ahead of Spain's Amets Txurruka, who chased behind him in the last two climbs. France's Brice Feillu, winner of the seventh stage in Andorra, was third, 6:13 adrift, closely followed by the main pack. Tour de France riders Oscar Freire of Spain and New Zealand's Julian Dean were shot at with air guns during the stage, their teams said. “Julian was shot by an air rifle or BB gun (pellet gun) at the top of a climb during the stage. He has a minor injury on his finger but he was able to finish,” Garmin-Slipstream spokeswoman Marya Pongrace told Reuters. “(Organizers) ASO have asked police to open an investigation.” A spokesman for Freire's Rabobank team said: “Oscar heard three shots and then felt a sting. A small shot was removed.” The Vosges mountains only helped Italy's Franco Pellizotti take the best climber's polka-dot jersey away from Spain's Egoi Martinez while Norway's Thor Hushovd claimed the points classification green jersey back from Briton Mark Cavendish. The Tour reached its second weekend without a doping case but the peloton was rocked by the news that Spaniards Ricardo Serrano and Inigo Landaluze, neither present on the race, had tested positive for the banned blood-booster CERA, a third generation EPO (erythropoietin) first detected on the Tour last year.
