2007 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10#Stage 9

The 9th stage of the 2007 Tour de France on July 17 was 159.5 km long and took the riders, after the first two days of rest the day before, of Val d'Isere southwestward through the southeastern region of Rhône -Alpes, in detail by the departments of Savoie and Hautes- Alpes, to Briançon in the region Provence- Alpes- Côte d' Azur. The third mountain stage was 159.5 km, with its one of the shortest sections of the tour, but she pointed to a total of three climbs, including, with the Col de l' Iseran and the Col du Galibier, two mountains in the highest category (HC) and was as the " queen stage " of the Alpine Transit.

The stage began in Val d'Isere starting point coinciding with the 15 km long climb to the Col de l' Iseran in which detached itself from the peloton after three kilometers covered, the Spaniard José Luis Arrieta. A little later, Yaroslav Popovych gave chase, closing at 6.5 km race on to the preceding vehicle Arrieta. The Spaniard was already after a short time no longer follow the pace of the Ukrainian Popovych and had to let this of it. Meanwhile, formed up behind Popovych a three-man chase group consisting of Vladimir Gusev, Mauricio Soler and Laurent Lefèvre, by a narrow margin on the main field. Popovych reached the "roof of the tour " at an altitude of 2,770 meters in 45 seconds ahead of his teammate Gusev, who had by now stripped of his two colleagues and reached the top ten seconds before the big field.

In the subsequent departure initially joined Benoît Vaugrenard and José Iván Gutiérrez and a little later Mikel Astarloza and Stef Clement to Gusev on. Due to the common tempo work they brought in consequence also the lying on top soloists and formed a six -man lead group, the first goal for her lead of about one minute in shallow transfer piece to the foot of the Col du Telegraph at about 3:30 minutes.

In the ascent to the Col du Telegraph first Clement and Vaugrenard fell back from the lead group after Gusev and a little later Astarloza had stepped up the pace. Immediately lay Astarloza alone in the lead and reached by a margin of 20 seconds on four of his five former companions the summit. He was followed by the peloton, which had a backlog of about 3:10 minutes, there were the meantime again torn Soler and relapsed Vaugrenard two riders between the four-man chase group and the peloton.

After a short descent followed directly after the climb to the Col du Galibier, after the Col de l' Iseran 2,645 meters the second highest peak of the tour this year. There the pursuer Astarloza obsolete already at the beginning of the slope, where Clement had lost the connection again, but later joined the band again. After the uprooted Colombians Soler had caught up with the lead group and also outdated, fell down to Popovych back all other drivers. A little later, could not follow even the Ukrainians, as Soler had increased the pace again. Meanwhile, attacked the peloton Alejandro Valverde, which only could follow about 14 riders. Alexander Vinokourov, Fränk Schleck, Oscar Pereiro and Linus Gerdemann were at this time no longer in the group. Following further attacks by Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans remained eleven riders in the group next to Valverde and Evans from Michael Rasmussen, Andreas Klöden, Iban Mayo, Juan José Cobo, Christophe Moreau, Kim Kirchen, Alberto Contador, Carlos Sastre and Levi Leipheimer composed. Another attack by Contador meant that only Evans was able to follow the young Spaniard Contador. Behind drove the remaining nine drivers. Evans had a short time his pace to pay tribute and had let Contador. Despite the high tempo of the favorites for the overall victory Soler reached the culminating point with 2:05 minutes ahead of Contador and Popovych, to which he had become receptive, and 3:10 minutes ahead of the group to the yellow jersey and went to the 33 kilometer run on the Col du Lautaret to Briançon.

Even before entering the town of Briançon disintegrated favorite group, which was grown in the downhill at eleven drivers after a driver inattention briefly in two parts. The front part then sought six kilometers before the finish line a the Verfolgerduo to Popwytsch and Contador. At the entrance to 4.5 km from the finish, the projection Soler one minutes was only just on the first chase group, which was set back a few hundred meters later by the second group. On the last small rise that began 1.3 km before the finish line, the pursuers overtook again firmly on the Colombian Mauricio Soler his first Tour victory but could not snatch. On the following places Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans followed by 38 seconds back, and close behind the other riders in the group. The big loser of the stage was the Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov, who reached the target in a larger group 3:24 minutes after the stage winner and had to give up the captaincy on his Astana teammate Andreas Klöden.

The Dane Michael Rasmussen kept in the standings, as well as in the mountains classification, the lead. Likewise, Tom Boonen remained in the sprint at the top. Alberto Contador, who had reached the destination as a day in fourth, took the lead in the junior rankings. In the team competition, the Spanish Caisse d' Epargne team placed at the first position with only six seconds ahead of the Discovery Channel.

Stage was accompanied by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who watched the race in the car of Tour director Christian Prudhomme.

Tasks

• 29 Patrik Sinkewitz - before the start of the stage, midface fracture after colliding with a spectator after the finish of Stage 8

Intermediate sprints

First intermediate sprint in Le Villaron ( Bessans ) ( 33.5 km ) (1740 m above sea level. NN )

Second intermediate sprint in Bramans ( 60 km ) ( 1235 m above sea level. NN )

Climbs

Col de l' Iseran, category HC ( 15 km ) ( 2764 m above sea level, . 15.0 km à 6,0 %)

Col du Telegraph, category 1 ( 99.5 km ) ( 1566 m above sea level, . 12.0 km à 6,7 %)

Col du Galibier, category HC ( 122 km ) ( 2645 m above sea level, . 17.5 km à 6,9 %)

* The points of the mountain classification are doubled when the last pass of the stage of the category HC, 1 or 2 corresponds.