Key moments

When the Tour de France was last in the Alps, Andy Schleck finished third from a sprint of three as he watched his brother beat the eventual winner of the Tour in a three-up sprint. Today the Luxembourger put himself in a position to win a second successive stage after cooperating with his main rival on the descent into the valley leading to St-Jean-de-Maurienne, and then all the way to the finish. While all the other favorites fought their demons on the ascent of the col de la Madeleine – Cadel Evans in particular – the two-time winner of the youth classification raced into the lead of the Tour de France.
The first time Evans wore the yellow jersey, he had an advantage of just one second to Fränk Schleck who then inherited the race lead (after five days), this year another Schleck spoiled the Australian’s party. A collapse that began 45km from the line would cost Evans his lead. He lost over eight minutes to the new leader of general classification.
Amidst all that action, Sandy Casar kept his composure, worked up a solid lead with three others and then accounted for the others in the sprint for stage honors. The Frenchman who has six second-places to his credit now has three stage wins in the Tour to gloat about. The first was in Angoulême in 2007, the next a retrospective prize (after Mikel Astarloza’s disqualification in stage 16).

The Progress Report
The ninth stage of the 2010 Tour de France, 204.5km from Morzine-Avoriaz to St-Jean-de-Maurienne, began at 11.36am. There were 181 riders at the start with Gerrans (SKY), Karpets (KAT), Felline (FOT and Kluge (MRM) were the non-starters. This was the first stage of the 97th Tour that featured only two intermediate sprints; they were in Cluses (25.5km) and La Bathie (135.5km). On the menu were five climbs, including the first ‘Hors Category’ col this year. Points for the polka-dot jersey were won at the côte de Châtillon (cat-4 at 18.5km), col de la Colombière (cat-1 at 46km), col des Aravis (cat-2 at 71km), col des Saisies (cat-1 at 97km) and col de la Madeleine (‘Hors Category’ at 172.5km).

11 Form Escape Early
Chavanel attacked immediately but never got any gain on the peloton which was controlled by the BMC team. Gautier (BTL) broke free at the 5km mark and was joined by 10 others – Voigt (SAX), Hushovd (CTT), Casar (FDJ), Nocentini (ALM), Pineau (QST), Frohlinger (MRM), Charteau (BTL) and three Caisse d’Epargne riders – LL Sanchez, Moreau and Gutierrez. They were pursued by Hunter (GRM), Popovych (RSH) and, briefly, Kern (COF). Eibegger (FOT) quit before the first sprint. In Cluses (25km) the escapees were 40” ahead of the counter-attackers and 2’00” ahead of the peloton. On the Colombière climb, Vinokourov (AST) instigated a counter-attack, he was briefly joined on the attack by Brajkovic and Horner (RSH) and Chavanel (QST). The BMC team led the peloton all the way up the second climb.
Hushovd crashed around the 40km mark. Gadret, Taaramae and Seeldrayers were also aggressive on the second climb. The average speed for the first hour was 40.4km/h.
At the top, Cunego and Taaramae were 42” behind the nine leaders, Frohlinger was at 1’00”, Hushovd, Gadret and Seeldrayers at 2’45” and the peloton at 3’35”.

Sanchez Becomes Virtual Leader…
There was a general regrouping on the descent of the col de la Colombiere. At the 63km mark, the peloton was 4’10” behind 12 stage leaders: Voigt, Casar, Pineau, Frohlinger, Charteau, Gautier, Sanchez, Gutierrez, Moreau, Taaramae and Cunego. At the base of the col des Saissies the peloton was 5’20” behind the escape group. Sanchez became the virtual leader of the Tour at this point (starting the day ranked 20th, 5’03” behind Evans). There was no attack from either the lead group of peloton on the cols des Aravis and Saissies. At the 123km mark, the escapees were ahead by 6’15”.

Col de la Madeleine
At the base of the final climb, the peloton was 6’15” behind the escapees. Pineau was dropped from the lead group with 55km to go. With 53km to go, Vinokourov attacked the peloton that had been led by N. Sorensen (SAX) for several kilometers. The yellow jersey was left with one team-mate (Santambrogio) in his peloton. After Vino’s attack, the Italian took up the pace-setting but, we would soon learn, it was all to no avail… Evans wasn’t able to respond when the real attacking began.

Crisis For Cadel
Evans has led the Giro d’Italia twice – the first time in 2002, again this May – both times for just one day. He led the Vuelta a España for one day last year and his reigned as Tour leader lasted just as long in 2010… At the 160km mark, the work from the likes of Fuglsang (SAX) and Navarro (AST) revealed signs of weakness from the yellow jersey. When he lost contact with an elite group it prompted Navarro to surge ahead, he was followed by Contador and Schleck and, once Cadel’s collapse was confirmed the two who finished first and second last year shot ahead to maximize their gains.

Casar Wins & Schleck Turns White Into Yellow
Charteau, Cunego, LL. Sanchez and Casar led over the Madeleine and, with the 40 points for first, Charteau took the lead in the climbing classification. Moreau was next at the summit (at 1’45”) then came Contador and Schleck at 2’20”. The four stage leaders never attacked each other in the final 35km. But they lost time to a rapid charge from Contador and Schleck who pulled back 10” per kilometer in the final 5km. They had Moreau as a passenger but caught the four stage leaders with 600m to go. Casar never faltered from his ambitions and led the sprint out and was able to hold off Sanchez and Cunego to take his third stage win in the Tour de France.
Contador and Schleck finished 6th and 7th in the stage and the Luxembourger took the yellow jersey for the first time. The Best Young rider is the leader of the Tour. Evans finished 42nd and lost 8’09” to the new race leader.

From little things, but things grow as Anthony Charteau can testify. He put himself in an escape group and dreamed of winning the stage… and while he missed out on that prize, he did lead the Tour de France over the col de la Madeleine and took the lead in the mountains classification for his efforts.

“The polka-dot jersey was definitely not my goal. I thought only about the stage victory, because it is very important to us. Of course we don’t climb the col de la Madeleine every day, so it’s with a great deal pride that I’ve etch my name on that pass, but I thought first and foremost of the stage win. In the end, the arrival of Schleck, Contador and Moreau in our group changed everything. Andy immediately took the lead I found myself a little to far against the barriers… and I panicked. I could work around on the left and try to pass, so I missed something. In fact the best approach was to attack from a long way out to cut corners, and this is what Sandy did perfectly.
“Now I have the consolation of the polka-dot jersey, I think there will be a good battle with Jérôme Pineau. Theoretically he is faster than me on the climbs that are a little less difficult, but I was able to make the difference by gaining points on category-one and ‘hors category’ passes…”

After one day in the yellow jersey, Cadel Evans admits that the race for the win may well be over. He’s hinted that the crash at the start of stage eight had done more damage than initially thought but the Australian is not yet willing to completely surrender despite losing over eight minutes to Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador.

"Obviously I wasn’t at the same level as I was in the Morzine-Avoriaz stage. I had a big crash six or seven kilometers into that stage and I’m experiencing the consequences in the 48 hours since then. This year has been one when I’ve had two health problems – at the Giro and again now – and I’m not at my normal level. I put in a lot of work and I suffer on my bike every day but I do it with pleasure… but the guys who have supported me and been so good – everyone from Andy Rihs, the boss of BMC, and everyone else who has believed in me in this whole project – and I’m grateful for that. It was all going so well but I’m sorry to let them all down.
“I think this Tour is over for the win but I have to look at the results and make an analysis of things and of course I’ll be able to elaborate more on the situation a lot more then. I had a really bad crash in stage eight and that cost me a lot of energy. Maybe, in my situation, getting into yellow also showed my vulnerability.
“The whole team rode fantastically – solidly – but I’m the one who has to finish it off. I was vulnerable on the climb and that’s not my normal level.”

There have been numerous close calls for Sandy Casar in stages of the Tour de France. He’s also won a couple of times and today he thrived again at the end of a tough stage in the mountains…

“I had a difficult first week after which I lost my hopes of a good result in the general classification. So it was from that moment that I began to think about this stage, because it suited me. The climbs were hard, but it’s better for me when the finish is not at altitude.
“Since my second place behind Cyril Dessel in Jausiers [in 2008], I’m more methodical about my preparation for this type of finish. I knew it had to be at the front for the penultimate corner if I was to have a change of winning. But I did not expect to see the return of Andy Schleck, who immediately took the lead [after catching Casar’s group in the final kilometer]. So I gave it my all to pass him… Then I thought I would stay at the front for the final 200 meters, but it was actually 350. At that time I thought a lot about all these second places. I was obviously afraid of Luis Leon Sanchez, who had beaten me last year at St-Girons. I also knew that [Damiano] Cunego could be very fast. But I gave everything in the last two hundred meters, led by the idea that I could not lose. I think Sanchez has also made great efforts in the climb to the Col de la Madeleine.
“I dedicate this victory to my father, whom I thought in the final. As sprinter, I was always saying that in this type of situation, you had to tackle first. That’s what I did.”

He’s won the youth classification twice from his two starts in the Tour de France and Andy Schleck knew there was a lot of expectation on him this year. He raced into the white jersey on the first day in the Alps, into second overall the next day… and into yellow on today. He replaces Cadel Evans as race leader after the Australian’s collapse on the col de la Madeleine.

“It might have been a dramatic day for Cadel but it wasn’t for me. It was actually a good stage. It was hard at the beginning and I like that a lot. Riders just kept on attacking and it was like real racing today. There was no fooling around. [Alexandre] Vinokourov tried at the beginning, [Andreas] Kloden tried… those are big names and we had to be wary.
“We had Jens up there in the escape and he did a more than fantastic job – I don’t know what to say to thank him – and then Chris-Anker [Sorensen], Jakob [Fuglsang] worked at the front of the peloton for me. Before that I had Fabian and Stuey, Nicki – everybody – who were fantastic today. They are all part of my jersey.
“I don’t know how Jens did coming to the finish but when I looked him in the eyes in the last kilometer [of the col de la Madeleine] it was amazing what I saw. He wanted to help me get all the way to the top… but to be honest, I was on the limit.
“I saw the yellow jersey the other day and I thought, ‘I want that!’ Right now I have it and I know it’s not going to be a piece of cake to hold onto it. But I have a good team around me and of course I’m happy that I have it. It’s a dream come true to have the yellow jersey but it’s a little bit sad because everybody kind of expected it from me… but it’s something big and I recognize what we’ve done here today.
“On the final climb I attacked to try and drop Contador. It was not a test. I was going all out – I showed all the cards I had. If I attacked one more time I would have dropped myself. I’m actually pretty happy that he didn’t respond to what I was doing with one of his attacks.
“I was quite happy that we rode the last three or four kilometers together to the top.
“I’m please because I’ve won a stage and now I’ve got this jersey. It’s fantastic. Now I’m in yellow and I’ve got 40 seconds on Contador and there’s a pretty big gap to everyone else – now I’ve only got one guy to watch.”