Viva la France with a third stage win in Stage 9 of the Tour de France
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- July
- 12
Today was a day of control for the teams with General Classification riders. With two classis French climbs in the Pyrenees, the Col ‘Aspin (12 kilometers long) and Col du Tourmalet (17 kilometers long) in the middle 
of the 160.5 kilometer long stage. As expected a breakaway left the peloton from the start.
The Tourmalet climb was too far from the finish (about 50 K) for the real climbers to hold off the powerful -flatlanders and even a few sprinters. So the climbs were tempo climbs without attacks of the key riders.
While they rode tempo the breakaway was working hard to gain time and win the day with four strong riders. Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) , Pierrick Fedrigo (BBox Bouygues Telecom), Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank), and Leonardo Duque (Cofidis). Voight may have been there in case his teammate Andy Schleck attached and would welcome his help ahead.
Duque dropped off first and Voigt next leaving the Italian Pollizotti (third place in this years Giro) and Frenchman Fedrigo ( KOM winner in this years Dauphiné Libéré ) to try and hold off the charging peloton being driven by Team Columbia, Rabobank, and Caisse d’Epargne as they came into Limoges, the home to some of the world’s finest porcelain.
It was great to see the two hold off the group and for the Frenchman to win the day with smart riding. Pellizotti came here to win a stage and work for his team leaders and had control of the sprint with 1k to go. He attached just before a corner with 200k to go thinking the first through the corner would win, but a headwind and a tenacious Fedrigo had other plans taking his team’s second stage win. 
The peloton followed only 34 seconds behind the duo with former world champion Oscar Freore taking third. The other excitement in the last 5k was a flat of Saxo Bank’s GC man, Andy Schleck. He had to drop to the back of the group and get a bike change. Much of his team dropped back to pace him back at over 55kph. But the hero of the team today was Jens Voigt who was the last man to deliver his leader safely to the wheels of the group with 2 k to go. Voigt can do just about anything to help his team win and sometimes himself, if I was building a team he’d be one of my first choices, just a true pro.
The Yellow Jersey wearer, Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale rode stronger today as did his team.
The KOM polka-dot jersey moved to another great climber today, Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi from Christophe Kern (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne who is 19 points behind.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 11:35 AM by Randall Wolf. 
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I should mention that for third time this year a Frenchman won a stage at the Tour De France. Viva la France !