Tour de France 2007/9. stage

Result of the 9th stage
Stage winner	Mauricio Soler	4:14:24 h (37.618 km / h)
Second	Alejandro Valverde	+ 0:38 min
Third	Cadel Evans	equal time
Fourth	Alberto Contador	+ 0:40 min
fifth	Iban Mayo	+ 0:42 min
Sixth	Michael Rasmussen	equal time
seventh	Levi Leipheimer	equal time
Eighth	Kim churches	+ 0:46 min
Ninth	Andreas Klöden	equal time
Tenth	Carlos Sastre	equal time
Most combative driver	Yaroslav Popovych
Intermediate results after the 9th stage
Yellow jersey	Michael Rasmussen	43:52:48 h
Second	Alejandro Valverde	+ 2:35 min
Third	Iban Mayo	+ 2:39 min
Green jersey	Tom Boonen	147 P.
Second	Erik Zabel	134 P.
Third	Robert Hunter	103 P.
Dotted jersey	Michael Rasmussen	98 P.
Second	Mauricio Soler	79 P.
Third	Yaroslav Popovych	69 P.
White jersey	Alberto Contador	43:55:56 h
Second	Linus Gerdemann	+ 3:37 min
Third	Mauricio Soler	+ 3:41 min
Team evaluation	Caisse d'Epargne	131: 52: 51 h
Second	Discovery Channel	+ 0:06 min
Third	Team Astana	+ 3:02 min

The ninth stage of the 2007 Tour de France on July 17 was 159.5 kilometers long and took the riders, after the first of two rest days on the eve of Val d'Isere southwestward through the southeastern region of Rhône-Alpes , in detail through the departments of Savoie and Hautes-Alpes , to Briançon in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region . The third mountain stage with its 159.5 km was one of the shortest sections of the tour, but it had a total of three mountain ratings , including, with the Col de l'Iseran and the Col du Galibier , two mountains of the highest category (HC) and was valid as the “king's stage” of the Alps crossing.

The stage began in the starting point of Val-d'Isère with the 15-kilometer ascent to the Col de l'Iseran , in which the Spaniard José Luis Arrieta broke off the peloton after three kilometers . A little later, Jaroslaw Popowytsch took up the chase and caught up with Arrieta in front at 6.5 km. After a short time, the Spaniard could no longer follow the pace of the Ukrainian Popowytsch and had to let him go. Meanwhile, a three-man chasing group formed behind Popowytsch, consisting of Vladimir Gussew , Mauricio Soler and Laurent Lefèvre , with a narrow lead over the main field. Popowytsch reached the "roof of the tour" at an altitude of 2,770 meters with a 45-second lead over his teammate Gusew, who had meanwhile broken away from his two competitors and reached the summit ten seconds before the large field.

In the subsequent descent, Benoît Vaugrenard and José Iván Gutiérrez and a little later also Mikel Astarloza and Stef Clement caught up with Gussew. As a result of the joint tempo work, they also caught up with the soloist at the top and formed a group of six who expanded their lead from initially about one minute in the flat overpass to the foot of the Col du Télégraphe to about 3:30 minutes.

On the climb to the Col du Télégraphe , Clement and Vaugrenard fell back from the top group first after Gussew and a little later Astarloza had accelerated the pace. Astarloza was soon alone in the lead and reached the summit with a lead of 20 seconds over four of his five former competitors. It was followed by the peloton, which was about 3:10 minutes behind, with Soler, who had now run away again and Vaugrenard, who had fallen behind, two drivers between the four-man chasing group and the peloton.

After a short descent, the ascent to the Col du Galibier followed , after the Col de l'Iseran at 2,645 meters, the second highest peak of the tour this year. There, the pursuers caught up with Astarloza at the beginning of the climb, with Clement losing the connection again, but later joining it again. After the runaway Colombian Soler caught up with and also overtook the leading group, all the other drivers fell behind except Popovych. A little later, the Ukrainian couldn't follow either, as Soler had increased the pace again. Meanwhile, Alejandro Valverde attacked in the main field , which only about 14 drivers could follow. Alexander Winokurow , Fränk Schleck , Óscar Pereiro and Linus Gerdemann were no longer in the group at this point. After further attacks by Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans, eleven drivers remained in the group, who, alongside Valverde and Evans, consisted of 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. The remaining nine drivers drove behind. After a short time Evans had to pay tribute to his pace and let Contador go. Despite the fast pace of the favorites for the overall victory, Soler reached the culmination point with 2:05 minutes ahead of Contador and Popowytsch, to which he had meanwhile caught up, and 3:10 minutes ahead of the group around the yellow jersey and went into 33 Kilometers long descent over the Col du Lautaret to Briançon.

Even before the entrance to Briançon, the group of favorites, which had grown to eleven drivers on the descent, briefly split into two parts after the inattentiveness of a driver. The front part then caught up with the chasing duo of Popovytsch and Contador six kilometers from the finish. At the entrance to the village, 4.5 kilometers from the finish, Soler's lead was just under a minute over the first group of pursuers, which was replaced by the second group a few hundred meters later. On the last small climb, which began 1.3 kilometers from the finish line, the pursuers caught up again strongly, but could no longer wrest his first Tour victory from the Colombian Mauricio Soler. On the other places followed Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans, 38 seconds behind, as well as the other riders in the group shortly behind. The big loser of the stage was the Kazakh Alexander Vinokurow, who reached the finish in a larger group 3:24 minutes after the stage winner and had to relinquish the captain's role to his Astana teammate Andreas Klöden.

The Dane Michael Rasmussen kept the lead in the overall classification as well as in the mountain classification. Tom Boonen also stayed at the top in the sprint classification. Alberto Contador, who had crossed the finish line fourth of the day, took the lead in the junior class. In the team standings , the Spanish Caisse d'Epargne team took first place with just six seconds ahead of Discovery Channel .

The stage was accompanied by French President Nicolas Sarkozy , who watched the race in the vehicle of Tour Director Christian Prudhomme .

tasks

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

Intermediate sprints

1st intermediate sprint in Le Villaron (Bessans) (33.5 km) (1740 m above sea level)

First	Yaroslav Popovych	6 p. And 6 s
Second	José Iván Gutiérrez	4 p. And 4 s
Third	Stef Clement	2 P. and 2 s

2nd intermediate sprint in Bramans (kilometer 60) (1235 m above sea level)

First	Mikel Astarloza	6 p. And 6 s
Second	Vladimir Gusev	4 p. And 4 s
Third	José Iván Gutiérrez	2 P. and 2 s

Mountain ratings

Col de l'Iseran , category HC (kilometer 15) (2764 m above sea level; 15.0 km at 6.0%)

First	Yaroslav Popovych	20 p.
Second	Laurent Lefèvre	18 p.
Third	Mauricio Soler	16 p.
Fourth	Anthony Charteau	14 p.
fifth	Mikel Astarloza	12 p.
Sixth	Vladimir Gusev	10 p.
seventh	Francisco Perez	8 p.
Eighth	Christophe Moreau	7 p.
Ninth	Stef Clement	6 p.
Tenth	Denis Menshov	5 p.

Col du Télégraphe , category 1 (km 99.5) (1566 m above sea level; 12.0 km at 6.7%)

First	Mikel Astarloza	15 p.
Second	Yaroslav Popovych	13 P.
Third	Stef Clement	11 p.
Fourth	José Iván Gutiérrez	9 p.
fifth	Vladimir Gusev	8 p.
Sixth	Mauricio Soler	7 p.
seventh	Benoît Vaugrenard	6 p.
Eighth	Laurent Lefèvre	5 p.

Col du Galibier , category HC (km 122) (2645 m above sea level; 17.5 km at 6.9%)

First	Mauricio Soler	40 p.
Second	Yaroslav Popovych	36 P.
Third	Alberto Contador	32 p.
Fourth	Cadel Evans	28 p.
fifth	Mikel Astarloza	24 p.
Sixth	Alejandro Valverde	20 p.
seventh	Michael Rasmussen	16 p.
Eighth	Christophe Moreau	14 p.
Ninth	Andreas Klöden	12 p.
Tenth	Juan José Cobo	10 p.

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ radsportnews.net from July 17, 2007: Sarkozy visits the tour ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )