Tour de France - Fedrigo too fast for Franco

Eurosport - Mon, 13 Jul 13:47:00 2009

France's Pierrick Fedrigo denied Franco Pellizotti a maiden Tour de France win by outsprinting the Italian to take stage nine in Tarbes.

Fedrigo - 0

The pair held off a frantic chase by the peloton after attacking early in the day before the legendary climbs of the Col d'Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet.

It was Fedrigo's second career Tour stage win and his team Bbox Bouygues Telecom's second victory in this year's race following Thomas Voeckler's stage five scalp.

Yellow jersey Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r) came home safely in the pack 34 seconds behind and alongside race favourites Astana pair Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador.

Despite featuring one of the Tour's most feared climbs, the 160km stage failed to produce the dramatics associated with the unclassified Tourmalet, primarily due to the organisers' decision to follow the brutal ascent with a 70km slog down through the lush meadows of the Pyrenean foothills.

With both the Tourmalet and the first-category Aspin falling right in the middle of the itinerary, the sting was taken out of the tail of a potentially explosive stage as all the contenders for the general classification preferred to conserve their energy ahead of Monday's rest day.

Fedrigo and Pellizotti were part of an early breakaway that included German veteran Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) and Colombian sprinter Leonardo Duque of Cofidis.

Taking a four-minute, 40-second lead over the peloton on the early slopes of the Aspin, the four riders soon dropped their fellow escapees before Duque also fell by the wayside.

A chasing group formed further down the mountain, including Euskaltel's Egoi Martinez and Rabobank's Laurens Ten Dam.

On the steeper climb of the Tourmalet, which took the riders through the ski resort of La Mongie, Voigt was dropped as the leading pair moved ahead following an attack by Liquigas' Pellizotti.

The duo held a 3'30" lead over the chasing group over the summit with very little happening back in the peloton, controlled by the Ag2r team of yellow jersey Nocentini.

In fact, Astana were noted for their absence, the team of seven-times Tour champion Armstrong taking a backseat for most of the day. Excepting an uncharacteristic dig by the American on the flat prior to the climbs, it was a quiet afternoon in the office for Johan Bruyneel's Kazakh-funded team.

With the long descent to the finish clearly affecting the tactics of most riders, none of the favoured GC contenders dared to make a move on the Tourmalet, making for a strangely subdued spectacle.

Events soon spiced up, however, with Ten Dam crashing heavily on the descent and the peloton soon catching the nine-strong chasing group.

With the Rabobank team of Oscar Freire and the Caisse d'Epargne outfit of Joaquin Jose Rojas leading the chase, the leading pair's lead had dropped to 50 seconds with the finish still seven kilometres away.

But Fedrigo and Pellizotti combined well to earn the right to battle it out for the victory between themselves.

It was the 31-year-old Italian, the weaker sprinter of the two, who made the first move on the final bend. But Fedrigo, a Tour stage winner in 2006, used his experience to come from behind and pip his rival on the line.

The win was France's third victory in this year's race and the 30-year-old's second triumph of the season following his scalp in last month's Dauphine Libere.

Spaniard Freire led the peloton home to take third place after more than four hours under the fierce sun in south-west France.

Britain's Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC), who on Saturday lost the green jersey to Norway's Thor Hushovd (Cervelo), finished in a second group 25 minutes behind.

After wearing the polka dot jersey for one day, France's Christophe Kern (Cofidis) hands it over to Spain's Martinez, who picked up enough points over the two climbs to edge ahead in the king of the mountains competition.

With no changes in the overall classification, the little-known Nocentini heads into the rest day with a six-second lead over Contador, with Armstrong lurking a further two seconds back.

The race resumes on Tuesday with the 194km stage 10 from Limoges to Issoudun where France will hope to celebrate yet another win on Bastille Day.

Stage 10 LIVE at 12.30am on Tuesday 14th July on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe

Felix Lowe / Eurosport

Comment 4 - 23 of 23

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  1. tour announced 2008-10-22

    From stefano, on Mon 13 Jul 12:42PM

  2. armstrong announced his return on 2008-09-10 and the­ route for the tour 2009 was announced on­ 2009-10-22..its possible they made the tour easy for­ him..

    From stefano, on Mon 13 Jul 12:40PM

  3. jinky, hahahaaahah time for confession isnt it catholic­ twart. go tell the priest your a loser, see if he­ forgives you.

    From gwaporob, on Sun 12 Jul 11:44PM

  4. yeah, looks like jinky bhoy is a good little catholic­ boy, got it up the sh11tter from his priest for years,­ and is carrying a chip on his shoulder. Now footie­ season is over he's looking around for other people­ to insult and somehow staggered into a cycling forum.­ He doesnt know about the sport but can watch the nice­ pictures and make childish comments. Maybe he's­ just a bit miffed that Rangers are the best team again­ too. hahah what a sad @#$%

    From lionbeatspanther, on Sun 12 Jul 11:40PM

  5. Jinky they are adults so obviously your not interested.

    From iancampbell11, on Sun 12 Jul 11:07PM

  6. yer this tour has been so easy, the giro was way­ better. I mean there's no point in watching the­ rest of the tour (apart for the finishes) till the last­ couple of climbs in the alp's...

    From woodstock, on Sun 12 Jul 10:22PM

  7. #19, Correct me if I'm wrong, I might well be, but­ wasn't the route announced before he said he was­ going to come back? In which case, you'll find­ it's the other way around - he came back because­ the Tour is easy. Bejeszus, we've got Wiggins in­ the top five. Either he's started doping, or­ there's been no racing yet. I'm sorry - time­ trialists just don't turn into climbers in 12­ months. Even Indurain took a few years to learn to­ climb, and didn't magically go from 134th to 5th in­ the space of a single year.

    From Thomas, on Sun 12 Jul 10:13PM

  8. so far it was interesting tour but no for GC,organisers­ did poor job choosing stages,except TT and arcalis­ finish there s no need to watch more than last 20 km­ and pyrenean stages was a complete joke...its a shame­ and next week is goin to be the same so good for AG2R­ boys...i hope last week we ll see some action

    From xangtzu, on Sun 12 Jul 10:02PM

  9. A dull day for everyone, except for the breakaway­ riders. If the TdF organisers want to set up this style­ of stage, do it on a weekday, not at the weekend. It­ was predicted to be a dull stage, and sure enough it­ was! Why not end with a hill-top finish? Especially on­ a Sunday when most people are not working and have the­ time to watch it.

    For sure, we will see the big­ hitters showing their trump cards in the third week.

    From SteveJ, on Sun 12 Jul 9:56PM

  10. i think they made the tour easy so armstrong looks­ good.

    From stefano, on Sun 12 Jul 9:49PM
  11. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    so do u lot get a buzz out o watchin hundreds o GUYS­ all crouched over thier bikes in tight lycra­ shorts....bunch of ar se bandits if u ask me......;-p

    From Bazzabhoy!!, on Sun 12 Jul 9:46PM

  12. worst tour i can rememeber, who they trying to cater­ for with the first week?

    From sharonmacdonnie, on Sun 12 Jul 9:40PM

  13. this is the worst tour ever..today was an insult to the­ Tourmalet, having such along decent to the finish.,.­ what the point of attacking if your going to get caught­ on the decent.

    From stefano, on Sun 12 Jul 9:37PM

  14. Also strange...at this point the time gap back to 15th­ place less than 3min...this creates a mindset that many­ riders and teams still feel they are in with a chance­ at a podium finish real or not. Usually by this time­ there has been more of a selection, That being said I­ think we still know who are the riders and teams to­ beat.

    From gsipp00, on Sun 12 Jul 8:55PM

  15. If you want a race that's all mountains, and a time­ trial, in the summer, with big names, it already exists­ - Valverde already won it.

    The Tour is a three week­ race. Neutralising the first two weeks with a crappy­ route makes it the Dauphine 2.

    From Thomas, on Sun 12 Jul 8:36PM

  16. aso ruined what could have been a great tour, 3 days in­ the mountain but due to course lay out it was really­ only one day of racing for the gc. if aso didnt want a­ for the climbers should have just had flat bunch­ sprint. fedrigo and franco raced well.

    From veloboy22, on Sun 12 Jul 7:25PM

  17. tour could be decided if contador punctures or crashes,­ i think astana will leave him to look after himself. if­ things go his way he is a better tt than lance

    From veloboy22, on Sun 12 Jul 7:20PM

  18. It was interesting at the end.

    From MadoX, on Sun 12 Jul 6:48PM

  19. Kind of a ho hum mountain stage...glad for the two guys­ that were able to make thier break last to the­ finish...Clearly the Tour Organizers decided to put all­ of thier eggs in one basket that being the final­ week...Alps..Time Trial...Mount Vonteux..should be fun­ to watch...I think Astana and Buryneel hope things are­ decide in the Time Trial were it is every man for­ himself...If it comes down to penultimate stage without­ a clear
    leader then things should get interesting.

    From gsipp00, on Sun 12 Jul 6:13PM

  20. This article is about Fedrigo...chapeau! I'm­ delighted by his performance and win and sorry, too,­ for Pellizotti but one had to win. Love it when peloton­ mistimes the chase down.

    From charly.beagrie, on Sun 12 Jul 5:34PM
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