Today's stage was not only marked by a 6 rider break away but also by two big accidents, one in a very winding and dangerous descent and the other one because of a very bad manoeuvre of the driver of the invitees car of France Télévisions.

Reduced to 3 riders, the break away finally continues till the end and Luis Léon Sanchez (Rabobank) wins the stage in fron tof Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) who takes the yellow jersey, 7 years after having wore it for the first time, the time to which he thanks the fact that French spectators like him so much!

The summary of the 9th stage of the Tour de France 2011 : Issoire > Saint-Flour

After an unsuccessful attack by Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) and Pavel Brutt (Katusha Team) we had to wait until the 50 kilometer sign of the first kilometers in the race before seeing Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) attack. He gradually got company from Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) and than of Sandy Casar (FDJ), Luis Léon Sanchez (Rabobank) and Nikki Terpstra (Quick Step), and continued the rest of the race between Issoire and Saint-Flour with these 5 other riders.

Their gap went up to 4 minutes on slippery roads after a rainy morning on the race course of this stage. These routes and the winding and dangerous descent of the Puy Mary were at the origin of a big collective fall in the peloton. This fall was the end of the Tour de France 2011 for some big names of the peloton : Jurgen van den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto) who broke his shoulder, Frederik Willems (Omega Pharma-Lotto) who broke his collar bone, David Zabriskie (Team Garmin-Cervélo, photo) with a broken wrist and Alexandre Vinokourov who was between the trees on the side of the rode with a broken leg. Several riders also got injured but they could continue the race the day before the first rest day.

Temporarily divided in several subgroups, the break away gets back together with the same riders except for Nikki Terpstra and these 5 riders than see their gap going up to around 8 minutes. In this break away, the Dutch rider Johnny Hoogerland takes the points on top of the Col du Perthus, of the Col de Cère, of the Côte de la Chevade and of the Col de Prat de Bouc to thus take the polka dot jersey of the King of the Mountains classification which he already wore during the 8th stage after having taken it at the end of the 7th stage.

Just after this lasty climb a new accident happens, this time because of a France Télévisions car which took a risk which was way too high by passing the riders of the leading group on the left hand side. When he passes them on the side of the road in the grass, the driver of this car sees a tree dooming up in front of him and he thus tries to avoid it. He manages to do so with a margin of about one meter but by doing so he quite heavily touches Juan Antonio Flecha who glides on the road and touches on his turn Johnny Hoogerland. The last mentioned rider ends in the barbed wire on the side of the road and had 33 stitches tonight!

After this terrible accident which should never have happened, the 3 other riders continue to the finish and at the end it's Luis Léon Sanchez who attacks. Sandy Casar doesn't have enough power anymore to answer this attack and Thomas Voeckler doesn't manage to get back on him either. The Spanish rider of the Rabobank team thus wins the stage while Thomas Voeckler takes the yellow jersey, 7 years after having worn it for 10 days.

Tomorrow is the first rest day and many riders will most probably need it to get some rest after this first week but also to take care of today's injuries! Let's hope the riders who had to leave the Tour with one or more fractures will get better soon!

>> Watch a selection of photos of the 9th stage from Issoire to Saint-Flour

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour de France 2011 | Tour de France

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