That all changed today — America’s Independence Day, appropriately enough — when the 27-year-old sprint specialist bested the field in the Tour’s third stage, a flat 198-kilometer run from Olonne Sur Mer to Redon.

Farrar has played second fiddle in sprints to Mark the Mouth Cavendish, the Manx Missile. He’s had some tough luck against Cav along the way as well. But today his Garmin-Cervelo mates positioned Tyler perfectly, and it was Cavendish who had to bang his bars in frustration as his HTC leadout train fell apart in the closing seconds.

Farrar is a real gentleman and credit to the sport. His win could help draw mainstream Americans back to the Tour in the absence this year of legendary Lance Armstrong. In any case, it is a well-deserved triumph for a guy who has waited a long time and worked tirelessly to improve — all the unlikely way from quiet Columbia River roots.

Fignon later acknowledged using performance enhancers but shied from connecting doping with his cancer. He died today at age 50.

Historical aside: Fignon’s loss also prevented him from winning a rare double, both the Tour of Italy (Giro d’Italia) and the Tour de France in the same year. Only a handful of cyclists have accomplished the feat, and they rank among the hallowed names of the sport (Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain among others). So grueling is the double considered today that few riders even try. Tour favorites have stayed away from competing in both since LeMond’s time, and Lance Armstrong never even tried during his 7-Tour victory skein.

You'll be seeing him in yellow...

Andrew Hood of VeloNews speculates on who may follow the Schlecks and Contador to their new teams.

The win gave the world’s fastest human on two wheels his fourth win in this Tour and 14th stage win in the Tour overall. The gap between Cavendish and No. 2 Julian Dean, a teammate of Wenatchee’s Tyler Farrar, made it look like the peloton was coasting. The overhead shot is pretty amazing as Cavendish bullets off the front.

We’ll try to get film at 11.

Otherwise the general classification stayed the same, with Alberto Contador retaining the yellow jersey by a scant 8 seconds over Andy Schleck. Tomorrow’s 32-mile time trial will provide the race’s real climax, either confirming Contador’s right to this year’s trophy or fueling a debate likely to last for the ages over whether he should have waited for Schleck on Stage 15.

Our guess is this is the first time the Tour has had two Nor’westerners in the Top 10 this late in the race (if ever), but our crack research department is investigating just to be sure.

Bend OR's Chris Horner

Victoria B.C.'s Ryder Hesjedal

Coincidentally, Horner is Team Radio Shack teammate to two riders who were expected to finish far above him in the rankings — Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer. With neither having the stuff for Tourmalet, and Radio Shack’s team lead in the Tour on the line, Horner had the green light to ride off the front of the pack.

It’s long-overdue respect for Horner, who’s had some bad luck in his career and been left off Armstrong’s team in the past by manager Johan Bruyneel. Horner finished a noteworthy fourth in May’s Tour of California, though, and has always been considered a stronger rider than his role as domestique would allow him to demonstrate.

Horner is also an accomplished writer and blogger, and is doing a daily video diary for VeloNews.

Whether their positioning will carry into Paris on Sunday may be in doubt, given the penultimate time trial on Saturday. But for now, it’s great to see Ryder and Chris putting the upper left corner of the continent on the Grand Tour map.

Schleck simply could not shake Contador, who sucked wheel for kilometer after kilometer. That’s all he had to do, and it was not the way a champion wins a Tour. But Contador did not look like he had the kick to drop Schleck — he tried once, without success — so shadowing was the only realistic alternative.

If all goes according to expectations, Contador will win the 97th Tour de France in Paris on Sunday. Schleck will probably be second, although the day-before time trial could press him.

In any case, Andy can be congratulated for leaving it all on the pave this year.

As for Contador, the squeaky-voiced Spaniard remains a question-mark in the charisma department. Today’s ride proves that he will deserve the title, but only if he increases his 8-second lead during Saturday’s time trial. Psychologically, he will have to win the Tour by at least 40 seconds to erase the stain of Stage 15′s attack while Schleck was disabled by a thrown chain. (You can make the case, in fact, that Contador will have to win by at least a minute, due to the overall down time Schleck suffered.)

Today’s bottom line: Andy pushed, Contador followed. For the former, it was heroism. For the latter, it was classic Tour strategy. Each racer both won and lost today, but in different ways.

Schleck may not win the Tour, but he’s won the world cycling community’s heart. Ultimately, that may count for more.

Full report from Cyclingnews.com.

The two had a chat and hugged at today’s Stage 16.

Excerpt from VeloNews:

“(Alberto) came to apologize to me, that means a lot,” said Schleck, who wears the best young rider’s white jersey. “That shows he’s a champion and that he has character.”

Contador was roundly criticized for attacking Schleck when the yellow jersey dropped his chain about 3km from the Balès summit. By the time Schleck remounted his chain and chased over the summit, he lost all hope of defending the yellow jersey.

Contador was booed again Tuesday in Pau when he was awarded the yellow jersey, but Schleck called out to fans to respect the Tour race leader.

This has been a punishing Tour all right, with the result that at least two otherwise tantalizing mountain stages (including today’s) have been busts as far as the lead pack goes.

It was a docile run, enlivened only by an 8-rider breakaway that included ageless — well, aged maybe is more accurate — Lance Armstrong and even more senior French champion Christophe Moreau. In the end a Frenchman, Pierrick Fedrigo, did win — the sixth stage for the host country in this edition of the Tour — and Moreau closed to within 15 points of the polka-dot mountain jersey. In a surprise, Thor Hushovd regained the green jersey from Alessandro Petacchi, who entered the stage with a new doping cloud over his head.

Otherwise the general category stayed the same at the top, with Alberto Contador maintaining an 8-second edge over Andy Schleck following yesterday’s controversial 39-second win. We fantasized a sportsmanlike finish today where Contador rode to within 5 feet of the finish, then stopped for 39 seconds before crossing the line. But it was not to be.

It’s unfortunate not one of the Top 10 riders chose to press any kind of attack, because Stage 16 is one of the toughest in this year’s Tour and by rights should’ve provided some fireworks. World champion Cadel Evans, who fell from the back of the peloton, tweeted @cadelofficial, “All suffered here today. I rode in with a group that indicates my level…can’t remember a time I came in after the preso was done ( “

Putting this stage up against tomorrow’s rest day was probably a strategic mistake by the organizers. The riders obviously held back with the thought of focusing on Thursday’s climactic Pyrenees stage as the ultimate decider of this year’s race, the penultimate time trial notwithstanding.

Full report from VeloNews.

French national champion Thomas Voeckler brought home another stage win for the home country in this year’s Tour, riding off the front of a 10-minute breakaway up the final shark-tooth climb.

But the tragedy of the day, and perhaps the Tour, came when Schleck, just starting to put the hammer down on Alberto Contador, threw his chain and almost front-kicked over the bars. It wasn’t clear exactly what happened — we’re guessing a slack cable left him just enough between gears to throw the chain when Andy put down pressure hard — but by the time Schleck dismounted and got things going again, Contador was nearly 20 seconds up the road. [UPDATE: VeloNews speculates on possible causes for Schleck's lost chain.]

Benefiting not just from Schleck’s misfortune but the downhilling skills of Sammy Sanchez and a small group of race leaders, Contador finished 8 seconds in the lead, taking 39 seconds from Schleck on the day.

So the debate of the day — and perhaps of the 2010 Tour de France — will be whether Contador should have waited, as is the prerogative of any racer. Waiting is not required by the rules, but has been done in the past as a matter of courtesy and “champion etiquette.” (In 2003 Jan Ullrich waited for Lance Armstrong.)

“My stomach is full of anger, I want to take my revenge,” Schleck told Versus TV after the stage. He acknowledged, “It’s not to me to decide” whether it was fair for Contador to keep riding on, but did add: “It was not something I would do.”

Andy can take comfort in one thing: Contador obviously is scared. If the two-time Tour champion was confident, he would never have ridden away.

One new wrinkle we did get a chuckle out of: Versus is running a commercial where Schleck and Contador get into a playground snit, “Did so, did not!” for Specialized. You can barely understand what they’re saying (both speak in thick accents) but the point is made. Glad to see this comic relief from the “Gladiator” nature of the blow-by-blow commentary.

Although maybe given today’s grim turn of events, the repartee should be, “Should’ve waited!” “Should not!”

UPDATES

Pro-Contador Bikehugger gets plenty of pushback.

VeloNews reports on Lance Armstrong and other pros’ reactions.

CyclingNews full report on Stage 15.

But until today, we hadn’t seen one thing: A track stand!

Yet that’s what happened on the killer slopes of Ax-3-Domaines.

In a faceoff that will be analyzed from here till Tuesday but never quite fully explained, the two leaders almost came to a standstill as they jockeyed for position and tried to test each other and then catch the other off guard.

It was supposed to be a dramatic showdown, gloves off, mano-a-mano, on the vicious, punishing slopes of the Pyrenees. Instead Tour leaders Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador played not David and Goliath, not Ali and Frazier, not even Wiley C. Coyote and the Roadrunner.

It was cat and mouse.

Faced with repeated but tentative attacks, Schleck simply stayed on Contador’s wheel. Finally a frustrated Contador seemed to say, OK, pass me and then we’ll see what happens. Schleck wasn’t having any of it, though. You’re not going to get me ahead and then spring around me for a launch off the front, he seemed to be saying.

Post-stage interviews shed little light, with both saying more or less it was a day of strategic forays.

Still, one of the stranger mountain faceoffs the Tour has ever seen.

Perhaps Day Two in the Pyrenees will offer a little more “separation,” as they say.

Full report from VeloNews.