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Italy's Riccardo Ricco was victorious for the second time in three days on Sunday after winning the opening Pyrenean stage nine in impressive fashion. The Saunier Duval rider attacked on final climb of the 224-km ride from Toulouse to Bageres de Bigorre before descending alone to take the spoils.

Russian Vladimir Efimkin of the AG2r-La Mondiale team was second, 1'04" back, with team mate Cyril Dessel of France taking third place 13" further behind.

Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen of Team Columbia retained the overall leader's yellow jersey despite being isolated by his team for the final two first-category ascents.

The 24-year-old Ricco, who was only called into the Saunier Duval squad at the 11th hour after finishing an impressive second in the Giro d'Italia, surprised his rivals on the Col d'Aspin with a blistering attack.

With the stream-lined peloton in a state of confusion brought about by an attack by former yellow jersey Stefan Schumacher of Gerolsteiner, Ricco chose his moment to pounce, jumping out of the bunch and catching escapee Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner) one kilometre before the summit of the climb.

Expert descending over the final 20km of racing saw Ricco consolidate his lead over the summit and gifted the talented Italian with a second Tour stage of his career following Thursday's summit-finish win at Super Besse in the Massif Central.

"It's important for me to win another stage on the Tour because I don't have any doubt at all about my form," said Ricco. "Attacking is the only way I know how to do things and so I went on the attack to win. I'm happy with the victory. I am riding really competitively at the moment and I have really good legs."

Ricco now sits in 21st position, 2'35" from leader Kirchen, after clawing back some of the 3'36" he lost in the Tour's opening time trial.

It was an unexpected move from Ricco, who crashed heavily during the rain-swept previous stage and struggled to keep inside the peloton over the final 50km of racing on Saturday.

Emulating Ricco's fall on Sunday was the Australian race favourite Cadel Evans who crashed just after the feeding zone after taking a corner too wide.

The 31-year-old Silence Lotto rider cut his left elbow and thigh and had to have treatment by the race doctor before being nursed back into the peloton, his jersey ripped, by a cluster of team-mates.

Evans finished safely alongside his rivals to consolidate his second place, 6" behind Kirchen, who is also the race's green jersey.

Ricco's team-mate David De La Fuente of Spain held on to the polka dot jersey despite the best efforts of Germany's Lang, who broke clear early in the stage with Agritubel's Nicolas Jalabert and Aleksandr Kuschynski of Liquigas.

The trio built up a lead of more than 13 minutes at one stage before suffering on the penultimate climb of the day, the first category Col de Peyresourde.

Britain's David Millar (Saunier-Duval) slipped out of the top ten after finishing the stage 4'34" behind Ricco.

Monday's 156km stage ten from Pau to the ski resort of Hautecam features two unclassified climbs, the Tourmalet and the summit finish at Hautecam.

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Felix Lowe / Eurosport