Tour de France Stage 9: Casar wins as Schleck and Contador make it a two-horse race

On yet another day of high drama in the Tour de France, Astana’s Alberto Contador and Team Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck, the new race leader, emerged as the two men who – barring another sensational twist in what has been an unpredictable race to date – will battle for the yellow jersey over the next fortnight.  Cadel Evans the man in yellow going in to today's stage blew up on the relentless slopes of the Col de la Madeleine and surely said goodbye to his chances of a podium spot in Paris.

The stage itself was won by Sandy Casar of Francaise des Jeux, but Schleck and Contador almost ended up contesting the sprint themselves as they sped under the flamme rouge and surprised the last survivors of the day’s breakaway, which at one point had held an advantage of more than six minutes over the group containing the main contenders.

Evans, who had fallen 10 minutes behind the stage leaders, clawed a couple of minutes back on the way to the finish but appeared both physically and emotionally crushed after crossing the line. The BMC rider had been dropped by the group containing the main contenders some 8km from the top of the 27.5km Hors Categorie Madeleine, the day’s last climb, and continued to lose time on the rest of the ascent on a day when his hopes of clinching the overall victory in Paris all but disappeared.

As Evans fell away from the group, Contador, the defending champion, and Schleck, winner of the best young rider’s white jersey the last two years but now looking like the Spaniard’s only real rival for the maillot jaune this year, took control of the race, the pair jumping off the front with only Samuel Sanchez of Euskaltel-Euskadi managing to get across to them.

Sanchez, too, was quickly dropped as Schleck and Contador headed up towards the summit, arriving some 40 seconds after them, and although the Olympic road race champion tried to use his incredible descending skills to get back to Schleck and Contador, the effort of the climb had obviously taken its toll and by the time he passed under the 10km to go banner it was clear he wasn’t going to catch them.

By that point, Schleck and Contador had swept up Christophe Moreau of Caisse d’Epargne, who had fallen behind the remains of what had been an 12-strong escape group, and the 39-year-old, who announced yesterday that he would retire at the end of this season, was happy to take a tow from the general classification contenders.

Riding into the finishing straight behind the Astana and Saxo Bank stars allowed Moreau, a past wearer of the maillot jaune himself, to clinch fourth place on the stage behind Casar. Moreau’s team leader, Luis Leon Sanchez, the best placed of the escapees in the overall standings, had been bidding to win a stage of the Tour for the third year in a row, but had to be content with moving up to eighth in the general classification after spending much of the day as virtual yellow jersey.

The 12-man break had got away early on in the 209km stage from Morzine-Avoriaz, to Saint-Jean-de Mauriene and also included mountains classification leader Jerome Pineau, who scored points in the day’s first four categorised climbs before he fell away on the Madeleine, cresting three of those in first place.

Moreau who has polka dot jersey ambitions himself, had sprinted to get over the top of the second climb, the Colombiere, ahead of Pineau, and appeared to be warned by his team manager afterwards to hold back and let the Quick Step rider take the points on subsequent climbs.

Despite Pineau's efforts though, it was another of the escapees, Anthony Charteau of Bbox Bouygues Telecom, who moved the top of the mountains classification tonight, taking third place on each of the day's first four climbs and then being the first rider over the Madeleine.

Another rider who had slipped into that early break was Thor Hushovd of Cervelo TestTeam, who took the day’s opening sprint to consolidate his lead at the top of the points classification. However, the Norwegian crashed shortly afterwards and fell back through the field during the rest of the stage. 

Top 20 Tour de France 2010 Stage 9

1.  CASAR Sandy              FDJ                        5h 38' 10"
2.  SANCHEZ Luis-Leon        CAISSE D’EPARGNE            + 00' 00"
3.  CUNEGO Damiano           LAMPRE - FARNESE            + 00' 00"
4.  MOREAU Christophe        CAISSE D’EPARGNE            + 00' 02"
5.  CHARTEAU Anthony         BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM       + 00' 02"
6.  CONTADOR                 Alberto ASTANA              + 00' 02"
7.  SCHLECK Andy             TEAM SAXO BANK              + 00' 02"
8.  SANCHEZ Samuel           EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI         + 00' 52"
9.  RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin TEAM KATUSHA                + 02' 07"
10. LEIPHEIMER Levi          TEAM RADIOSHACK             + 02' 07"
11. GESINK Robert            RABOBANK                    + 02' 07"
12. VOIGT Jens TEAM          SAXO BANK                   + 02' 07"
13. MENCHOV Denis            RABOBANK                    + 02' 10"
14. DE WEERT Kevin           QUICK STEP                  + 02' 50"
15. BASSO Ivan               LIQUIGAS-DOIMO              + 02' 50"
16. PLAZA MOLINA Ruben       CAISSE D’EPARGNE            + 02' 50"
17. VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen    OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO        + 02' 50"
18. ARMSTRONG Lance          TEAM RADIOSHACK             + 02' 50"
19. KREUZIGER Roman          LIQUIGAS-DOIMO              + 03' 48"
20. VINOKOUROV Alexandre     ASTANA                      + 03' 48"

Top 20 on General Classification after Stage 9

1.  SCHLECK Andy             TEAM SAXO BANK             43h 35' 41"
2.  CONTADOR Alberto         ASTANA                       + 00' 41"
3.  SANCHEZ Samuel           EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI          + 02' 45"
4.  MENCHOV Denis            RABOBANK                     + 02' 58"
5.  VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen    OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO         + 03' 31"
6.  LEIPHEIMER Levi          TEAM RADIOSHACK              + 03' 59"
7.  GESINK Robert            RABOBANK                     + 04' 22"
8.  SANCHEZ Luis-Leon        CAISSE D’EPARGNE             + 04' 41"
9.  RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin TEAM KATUSHA                 + 05' 08"
10. BASSO Ivan               LIQUIGAS-DOIMO               + 05' 09"11. KREUZIGER Roman LIQUIGAS-DOIMO + 05' 11"
12. HESJEDAL Ryder           GARMIN - TRANSITIONS         + 05' 42"
13. VINOKOUROV Alexandre     ASTANA                       + 06' 31"
14. ROGERS Michael           TEAM HTC - COLUMBIA          + 07' 04"
15. SASTRE Carlos            CERVELO TEST TEAM            + 07' 13"
16. WIGGINS Bradley          SKY PRO CYCLING              + 07' 18"
17.ROCHE Nicolas             AG2R LA MONDIALE             + 07' 44"
18. EVANS Cadel              BMC RACING TEAM              + 07' 47"
19. LÖVKVIST Thomas          SKY PRO CYCLING              + 08' 03"
20. KLÖDEN Andréas           TEAM RADIOSHACK              + 09' 05"