Contador likely to claim yellow jersey in St Giros

ANDORRA (Reuters) - Alberto Contador looks set to claim the Tour de France yellow jersey when the mountainous eighth stage takes the peloton over 176.5km from Andorra to St Girons on Saturday.

Spaniard Contador, who won the Tour in 2007, moved up to second overall on Friday following a brutal attack in the final climb to Arcalis.

He now leads his Astana team mate and American rival Lance Armstrong by two seconds and trails overall leader Rinaldo Nocentini by six, but the Italian is not expected to follow the favourites' pace through the three ascents of the day.

With Astana manager Johan Bruyneel not keen to hold the usually coveted jersey to avoid the pressure of controlling the race, a breakaway is likely to go all the way for some second fiddles.

"Six seconds is a small margin but (Nocentini's team) AG2R will have to share the responsibility of the race with us, which is a good thing," said Bruyneel.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot)