Tour de France

Fedrigo takes stage as Nocentini retains yellow jersey

Article published on the 2009-07-13 Latest update 2009-07-13 11:46 TU

Fedrigo (centre) and Pellizotti avoid the fans as they go head to head
(Photo: Reuters)

Italy’s Rinaldo Nocentini held on to the yellow jersey as Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo won the ninth stage in this year's Tour de France, held over 160.5km from Saint Gaudens to Tarbes on Sunday.

The Bbox-Bouygues rider was part of a four-man breakaway which came down to a head-to-head sprint for the line with with Italian Franco Pellizotti.

"At first we were four, then three, finally two and then I won. It's a great moment of happiness," said the 30-year-old Fedrigo, who won his previous Tour stage in 2006.

"Thankfully I had a look at the stage finish so I knew there was a bend not far from the finish. Once he attacked I made sure I jumped on his wheel, especially as there was a bit of a headwind."

The main peloton containing all the race favourites came over the finish line 34 seconds later having failed to close the gap to the leading pair on the 70.1km descent leading from the summit of the Col du Tourmalet to Tarbes.

The stage was the last in the Pyrenees and is followed by a rest day on Monday.

Nocentini is six seconds ahead of Spain's 2007 champion Alberto Contador in the overall standings.

Seven-time champion Lance Armstrong, Contador's Astana teammate, is still in third place overall, eight seconds further back.

 

Stage nine individual results:

1 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 4hrs 05mins 31secs

2 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas

3 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank at 0.34

4 Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha

5 Peter Velits (Svk) Team Milram

6 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne

7 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Silence - Lotto

8 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel

9 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Lampre - NGC

10 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale

 

Overall standings after stage 9:

1 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 34hrs 24mins 21secs

2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana at 0:00.06

3 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana at 0:00.08

4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana at 0:00.39

5 Bradley Wiggins (Gbr) Garmin - Slipstream at 0:00.46

6 Andreas Kloden (Ger) Astana at 0:00.54

7 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC at 0:01.00

8 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream at 0:01.24

9 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank at 0:01.49

10 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas at 0:01.54