Fedrigo claims another stage for France

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Last week Bouygues Telecom celebrated team manager Jean-Rénè Bernaudeau's birthday with a stage win for Thomas Voeckler. Today it was party time again as Pierrick Fedrigo added to his tally of Tour de France stage victories with an emphatic performance that climaxed as he crossed the line ahead of day-long breakaway companion Franco Pellizotti.

Historic Tarbes was last used for a finish on Stage 13 of the 1951 Tour when Raphaël Géminiani won a four-man bunch sprint but was later disqualified, but Fedrigo encountered no such problem Sunday.

The ninth leg of the race marked Bouygues Telecom's second stage victory after Thomas Voeckler's Stage 5 triumph in Perpignan – quite a feat for a team in its final year of sponsorship – and was also Fedrigo's second Tour de France stage win. His first came on the fourteenth stage of the 2006 Grande Boucle, where, under similar circumstances, Fedrigo and Italian Salvatore Commesso barely held off the peloton on a journey from Montélimar to Gap.

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"In the finale, I had the same feelings as in 2006. The race unfolded in the same way: a breakaway of many riders at first, then a finish with only two riders. Today, I was in front, and the strength that I saved on previous stages allowed me to win," said the 31-year-old, who hails from nearby Marmande and is nicknamed ‘le nez de Marmande' (The nose of Marmande) for his rather large beak.

His Italian foe played the finale well, biding his time in Fedrigo's draft before jumping ahead of the final bend, but the line was too far for Pellizotti to hold on.

"We wanted to win, so we gave everything to stay away," said Pellizotti. "I knew that he was stronger than me in the sprint, but I tried until the end."

Leaderboard at status quo – again

The inclusion of two historic Tour climbs en route did nothing for those eyeing the Paris podium, the climbs of the Col d'Aspin and Tourmalet were neutralised due to their distance from the finish. In fact, only 34 seconds separated the supposed mountain stage from turning into a bunch sprint. Rabobank's Oscar Freire led a 75-strong group home for third place.

Once again, the leader board remained at status quo, leaving Rinaldo Nocentini of AG2R La Mondiale to enjoy his rest day in yellow, with the Astana trio of Alberto Contador, Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer breathing down his neck.

"The next few days are good for me, and I have a great team with me to help out, so I hope to keep it as long as possible," said Nocentini. "It would be a dream to get to Verbier [Stage 15] in yellow."

It wasn't all good news for the French and French teams. In the race for the polka-dot jersey, Egoi Martínez of Euskaltel-Euskadi overtook Cofidis' Christophe Kern to don the maillot à pois. The Spaniard now leads the competition by a margin of 19 points. However, with the Alps still to come, it's a jersey very much up for grabs.

Armstrong improves

After having a dig early on and riding near the front – comfortably – on both the Aspin and Tourmalet, it appears Lance Armstrong is beginning to thrive at his first Tour de France in four years.

After so much debate revolving around team leadership at Astana, it's impossible to ignore the fact that this Kazakh-backed coterie has four riders in the top-six on the overall classification: Contador (six seconds behind Nocentini), Armstrong (at eight seconds), Leipheimer (at 39 seconds) and Andreas Klöden (at 54 seconds). Clearly, the Tour de France is Astana's to lose, and if they're to be beaten, the other teams must collaborate.

Though with the Pyrenees behind us, one has to wait until next Friday – Stage 13, a 200-km trek from Vittel to Colmar that traverses four categorised climbs – before we are presented with a parcours with the potential to evoke any real change to the overall classification. But even then, we will still be searching for the answer to the question: just who is Astana's main man?

Contador has repeatedly said that the road will decide. If that is so, then he must wait until the third and final week to assert his authority. However, it appears as if Armstrong is looking for any opportunity to gain time, and if gnarly crosswinds present themselves as they did in on Stage 3 to La Grande-Motte, expect him to be up there.

From Haute-Garonne to Hautes Pyrénées

With an early evening transfer to Limoges, Sunday's final Pyrenean stage, a relatively short at 160.5 kilometres, began at 12:25 p.m in Saint-Gaudens, and was expected to finish no later than 5:00 p.m.

The course featured the two classic Tour climbs, the Cat. 1 Col d'Aspin (km. 60.5, 12.3 km at 6.4 %) and the hors catégorie Col du Tourmalet (km. 90.2, 17.1-km at 7.4%), but their position on the parcours made it more of a stage for the breakaway specialist than the climber.

And after an aggressive beginning that saw Lance Armstrong of Astana in an early escape that was never going to get away, a quartet went clear 25 clicks into the stage – Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank), Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas), Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) and Pierrick Fedrigo (BBox Bouygues Telecom) the men in the move.

The foursome worked in unison on the Aspin where Pellizotti crested first, signalling exactly 100km to go.

It was a different story behind them: Cofidis' Leonardo Duque was in hot pursuit, 55 seconds behind, followed by a chase group of 10, 2:57 back on the lead four and comprising the following names: Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank), Sergio Paulinho (Astana), Jurgen Van den Broeck (Silence-Lotto), Stéphane Goubert (Ag2r La Mondiale), Egoi Martínez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Juan Manuel Gárate (Rabobank), David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Vladimir Efimkin (AG2R La Mondiale), and Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom).

3:29 behind the Pellizotti group was the groupe maillot jaune. At this stage they were unconcerned given Efimkin, the best-placed rider on GC in 15th overall, was 2:45 down on Nocentini at the start of the day and most likely drained after the previous day's efforts, where he narrowly missed out on victory in Saint-Girons, won by Caisse d'Epargne's Luis Leon Sanchez.

The Tourmalet, a 17.1km beast that only grows steeper as it lengthens, took its expected toll. Voigt and Duque were dropped from the lead group to leave Pellizotti and Fedrigo first over its 2,115-metre summit, 3:01 ahead of a chase group of nine, the names being: Van den Broeck – now the best-placed rider on GC – Voigt, Ten Dam, Paulinho, Martínez – who, by the day's end, would lead the mountains classification – Txurruka, Gárate, Moncoutié and Voeckler. Duque continued in no man's land, and 5:03 in arrears was the groupe maillot jaune.

On the 70km, mostly downhill run to the line, Pellizzotti and Fedrigo worked hard to maintain their three-minute lead. That was in contrast to the chase group behind them that were rounded up by the yellow jersey group 40km from Tarbes, a town in bloom located at the foot of the Pyrenees.

The Caisse d'Epargne-driven peloton was also intent on catching the lead pair, but having worked so hard all day, Pellizotti and Fedrigo weren't prepared to concede to the chase, and in the end, the fast-finishing Frenchman was too quick for the Italian climber.

"We spoke in the last kilometres," Fedrigo said, "and encouraged each other to give it everything to stay away. We believed in our chances, and remained calm. That was the key to our success."

Well, success for one, at least. Pellizotti got his consolation prize with the award for most aggressive rider on the day.

For images of stage nine click here