Tour de France: Mauricio Soler wins stage 9

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Mauricio Soler of Colombia has won stage 9 of the 2007 Tour de France. Michael Rasmussen of Denmark retains the overall lead.

The 159.5 km stage 9 began with a cold start to the Hors Categorie climb up to the Col de l'Iseran (15 km at 6%), followed by the Col du Télégraphe and the Col du Galibier (12 km at 6.7% and 17.5 km at 7%) with a 32 km downhill finish in Briançon.

The Colombian Barloworld rider was the first to top the peak of Col du Galibier and held on during the downhill finish. The chase group finished 38 seconds behind him.

Soler was excited by his stage victory: "It’s an incredible day. I’m living out a dream. I worked very hard to arrive at the finish on my own and I received the superb prize for that effort. I wanted to achieve something for myself in my Tour debut and at 24 years of age, I’ve been able to stamp my name on a stage. Nobody believed I could win here, not even me."

Pre-Tour-favorite, Alexandre Vinokourov, who has been struggling since he crashed on stage 5, lost nearly three minutes the in chase for the yellow jersey and is now in 21st place overall.

"I did what I could," said Vinokourov. "The team worked well again and tried to reduce the gap. It was another horrible day for me."

Linus Gerdemann, who surprised everyone in stage 7, fell out of the top ten overall and had to surrender the white jersey to Alberto Contador.

General classification after stage 9

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1	Michael Rasmussen	Rabobank	43h 52' 48"
2	Alejandro Valverde	Caisse d'Epargne	+2' 35"
3	Iban Mayo	Saunier Duval-Prodir	+2' 39"
4	Cadel Evans	Predictor-Lotto	+2' 41"
5	Alberto Contador	Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team	+3' 08"
6	Christophe Moreau	AG2R Prévoyance	+3' 18"
7	Carlos Sastre	Team CSC	+3' 39"
8	Andreas Klöden	Astana Team	+3' 50"
9	Levi Leipheimer	Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team	+3' 53"
10	Kim Kirchen	T-Mobile Team	+5' 06"

Sources

"Alpine win for Soler Hernandez" — BBC Sport, July 17, 2007
Phil Gordos. "Stage nine - as it happened" — BBC Sport, July 17, 2007
"Soler: Barloworld’s Colombian Hero" — Tour de France, July 17, 2007

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