Andy Schleck in White
[13.07 16:41] The Ninth stage of Tour de France resulted in the White Jersey for Andy Schleck after one of his rivals for the overall victory in the Best Young Rider competition, Riccardo Ricco (Saunier Duval) won the 224-kilometer stage from Toulouse to Bagnères-de-Bigorre by crossing the finish line solo about a minute ahead of the rest of the favorites.
"I'm happy that I get to wear the White Jersey but it wasn't something, which was on my mind out there. Today was all about trying to stay up front for me. In some weird way I'm actually a bit sad to have taken it from Thomas Lövkvist (Team Columbia) because he's a really good friend of mine, but such is life, I guess. Last year I got the jersey in the ninth stage of Giro d'Italia as well and kept it all the way through to the last stage, so I'm hoping to do the same here," said Andy Schleck after the stage.
The leader's jersey still belongs to Team Columbia's Kim Kirchen, who was in a group with the Schleck brothers and Carlos Sastre as well as the rest of the GC favorites.
Apart from Ricco the favorites for the overall victory did not attack on the two category-1 climbs, Col de Peyresourde and Col d'Aspin, but in stead watched each other like hawks.
"It was a fairly exciting stage today. It wasn't as tough as we'd anticipated, but it's not unlikely that some of the riders in the peloton might be a bit worn out tomorrow, where we have a more important stage ahead of us. Tourmalet and Hautacam are climbs of an entirely different caliber than those today so we're going to be much more aggressive tomorrow," said Team CSC Saxo Bank's Bjarne Riis.
In the overall standings Carlos Sastre advanced to a 10th place followed in the next two spots by Fränk and Andy Schleck.
Toulouse -> Bagnères-de-Bigorre, 224km; Results |
