So upset he did not even remove his helmet before boarding the team vehicle, Valverde's withdrawal means Armstrong now has one rival less to trouble him. Barring the Pyrenees, his road to Paris and a seventh Tour is becoming smoother than ever Alasdair Fotheringham writes for Cycling Weekly. Tour details Stage 13 (Miramas to Montpellier, 173.5km, 107.8m): 1 R McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto, 3hr 43min 14sec; 2 S O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis, same time; 3 F Rodriguez (US) Davitamon-Lotto, same time; 4 G Trenti (US) Quick Step, same time; 5 T Hushovd (Nor) Cr?t Agricole, same time; 6 A Geslin (Fr) Bouygues Telecom, same time; 7 R Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner, same time; 8 M Backstedt (Swe) Liquigas-Bianchi, same time; 9 G Bortolami (It) Lampre, same time; 10 C Horner (US) Saunier Duval, same time. Overall Standings: 1 L Armstrong (US) Discovery Channel, 50 hours, 13 minutes, 50 seconds; 2 M Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank, +38sec; 3 C Moreau (Fr) Cr?tAgricole, +2:34; 4 I Basso (It) CSC, +2:40; 5 S Botero (Col) Phonak, +3:48; 6 L Leipheimer (US) Gerolsteiner, +3:58. Chelsea ended weeks of intense speculation and one source of irritation for Ars? Wenger, last night when they finally lodged an £18m bid for the Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips - but City responded by immediately rejecting the offer. Chelsea have courted the 23-year-old England international all summer, much to the annoyance of the Arsenal manager who claimed the rest of the Premiership had to wait for the champions' every move before they could implement their own transfer plans. Now, however, the process of prising Wright-Phillips from Eastlands to west London has begun, even though Chelsea's opening gambit falls short of the £22m valuation placed on the midfielder by his manager, Stuart Pearce.City rejected the offer last night because they were mystified at the size of the bid - having made it clear over a month ago to Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive, that they would not consider parting with their prize asset for £18m.City insist Wright-Phillips is happy under Pearce. "Titus (Bramble, who has a fractured elbow) is obviously not involved - he was been a big player for us in the last six months of last season - so make no mistake about it, this is a difficult game for us.".
"Two weeks' training in not enough training to get you fit to play competitive games, so this will be a very difficult game, combined with the fact that we have Emre and Scott Parker not available for the game, JJ is not available for the game, Stephen Carr is not available for the game and as we are sitting here, I think Shay will only be on the bench. "This is going to be a very difficult game for us simply because they have been back six weeks and have played two competitive games; we have been back a fortnight and played no games. He, along with Stephen Carr, Shay Given and Jean-Alain Boumsong, only returned to pre-season training on Monday after international duty extended their seasons into June, and that is the given reason for his omission. The Magpies face a tough test if they are to qualify for the UEFA Cup via the Intertoto competition, with Deportivo La Coruna and either Lazio or Marseille potentially standing in their way. Of the Dubnica match, Souness said: "That is going to be a very difficult game for us.
"The fact that nobody knows about this team, or no-one has heard of this team or nobody knows anything about the players that play for this team, people may regard it as a formality - it is not a formality. "The only thing I will say is we are not in the business of selling our best players. "We are not in the business of selling our best players and I am not going to talk about it We have a big game to try to concentrate on, on Sunday. "It is not going to be an easy game for us because of the lack of fitness we will have and the fitness that the other team will have, so that really is what we are concentrating on, not speculating who is leaving or who is arriving." But pressed on the matter, he added: "For ?20million, the chairman might be tempted." Jenas has been left out of the 18-man party which will leave for Slovakia tomorrow morning. Anelka certainly has the pedigree and, having sold the troublesome duo of Bellamy and Laurent Robert, Souness may have to make allowances for a player whose attitude has been questioned more than once during his career. Newcastle begin their season in Slovakia on Sunday with an Intertoto Cup clash with Dubnica.
