Casar claims stage win for France

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This year's Tour de France has been a good vintage for French riders; two stage wins and the maillot jaune for Sylvain Chavanel have made it memorable for the local fans, who were treated to more home grown success with a stage win for Française des Jeux's Sandy Casar in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne after another interesting day in the Alps.

The day belonged to the 31-year-old from Mantes-la-Jolie, whose home region is not far from where this race will finish in 12 days' time, and this afternoon in the Savoie department of the Rhône-Alpes region he took a win that will remain with him long after the conclusion of the 97th Tour de France in Paris on July 25.

Having spent much of the day in a high-powered break, Casar climbed the Col de la Colombière, Col de Aravis, Col des Saisies and the Col de la Madeleine ahead of the peloton - by day's end he had outsprinted fellow escapees Luis León Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini) to add another victory to the one he earned on stage 18 of the 2007 Tour de France in Angoulême.

And in a sign of what to expect over the course of the next 12 days, Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) earned himself the overall race lead following his mano-a-mano exploits with Alberto Contador (Astana) that began on the slopes of the Col de la Madeleine. There's no doubt that the touch paper which was ignited today will result in an explosion for the maillot jaune once the race hits the Pyrenees.

One fact became glaringly obvious, however: this year's Tour de France has become a battle between Schleck, winner of Sunday's stage to Morzine-Avoriaz, and reigning champion Alberto Contador. There's already two minutes between second-placed Contador and third-placed Samuel Sanchez, and each has the team to help them remain at the head of proceedings, as evidenced by Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis's post-stage comments.

"The plan was to put on huge pressure if Andy [Schleck] was feeling alright and thankfully, he was flying," said Riis. "Jens [Voigt], Chris [Anker Sørensen] and Jakob [Fuglsang] put in a world class effort and they actually started the massacre on our opponents.

"Jens was ready to work for Andy on the final part of the mountain and when he wasn't able to drop Contador today, he did the right thing and worked together with him. Mission accomplished today, but the Tour de France is far from being over," he said.

While the focus was undoubtedly on the plucky pair making all the big moves, other riders reaping the fruits of their labours were a determined Samuel Sanchez, the Euskaltel-Euskadi leader battling bravely to move into third overall behind the Saxo Bank and Astana captains, plus Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack), Denis Menchov (Rabobank), Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), who all finished 2:06 behind the stage winner and now fill most of the top 10 spots on general classification.

Cadel Evans was one man just happy to make it to the finish, the erstwhile race leader's BMC Racing Team revealing he'd been riding with a fractured elbow. He lost the maillot jaune and suffered immensely on the Col de la Madeleine, eventually finishing more than eight minutes in arrears of the stage winner.

"I wasn't at the same level as I was on stage eight," said Evans, who will continue in the Tour despite the injury. "I had a big crash at the start of that day and I'm really paying for the consequences from that. I suffer on my bike every day but I do it with pleasure. The guys and the team have supported me and believed in me in this whole project. I'm so sorry to have let them all down."

Mega day in the mountains

After 24 hours of requisite respite, today's mountainous menu saw the Tour's peloton tackle the Col de la Colombière, Col de Aravis, the Col des Saisies and the Col de la Madeleine, a veritable feast for fans and 204.5km of torture for riders possibly looking ahead to the Pyrenees in dread.

Almost seven kilometres into the stage the green and polka dot jerseys respectively, Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) and Jerôme Pineau (Quick Step), were already trying their luck off the front of the peloton, the Norwegian keen to go on a points spree like he did during stage 19 of last year's Tour.

Eventually 10 riders got clear, with Pineau and Hushovd joined by Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank), Cyril Gautier (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne), José Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne), Christophe Moreau (Caisse d'Epargne), Sandy Casar (Francaise des Jeux), Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) and Johannes Frohlinger (Milram).

With about 30km on the clock and the Col de la Colombière looming, the break had established a gap of 2:50, as Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini) moved away from the peloton on their own after the main escape had flown the coop. With about 163km remaining, Hushovd was dropped as Cunego and Taaramae continued to make their way up to the break.

As the Italo-Estonian alliance crested the Col de la Colombière the united nations up front remained 40 seconds ahead. With 147km to go the mission was complete and both riders had made it to the break.

Consolidation was the name of the game for the escape group; as the peloton hit the Col de Aravis the advantage was just over four minutes and with 77.5km to go, the gap was 5:56, which meant Sanchez was the maillot jaune virtuel. Five kilometres later and the advantage had stretched to 6:19, with BMC Racing controlling the peloton as it went through the sprint in La Bathie.

Madeleine: A monstrous task

With the break hitting the slopes of the hors catégorie monster that is the Col de la Madeleine, it held an advantage of 6:30, although with 55km remaining that had decreased to 6:15 as Pineau was dropped, a situation seemingly ripe for Sanchez's picking.

Meanwhile, behind the leading group, BMC continued to dictate the pace in pursuit of Sanchez and co; with race leader Evans tucked in safely behind George Hincapie and followed by the Australian's former teammate Jurgen Van Den Broeck, who was flying the general classification flag for Omega Pharma-Lotto and supported by another Australian, Matthew Lloyd.

Another five clicks up the road and a full minute had been wiped off the gap, with just over five minutes separating the leaders and the BMC-led peloton, from which Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) had emerged in pursuit of the front group.

Vinokourov quickly established a lead nearing a minute, although with 46km left in the stage he trailed the leaders by 4:39 as he caught and quickly left Cofidis' Rein Taaramae behind. Five kilometres later the gap between the peloton and the remnants of the break - which was quickly tearing apart to just five riders - hovered just over five minutes.

And as the break was down to a quintet, the group containing the overall contenders was also shedding members, with the likes of Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) dropping their speed to survive the climb while Astana again set a spectacular tempo from the likes of Paolo Tiralongo and Daniel Navarro, which had coincidentally brought back Vinokourov.

The 'Andy and Alberto' Show

Shortly after the catch of Vinokourov, the inevitable happened and Andy Schleck hit out with about 40km to go, the attack followed only by Contador although soon the two were joined by Samuel Sanchez, who impressively rode past the pair and with a constant grimace continued on in an attempt to put time into the group behind.

But no sooner had Sanchez rode past and BOOM, it was time for Schleck to go again and again in an attempt to break the elastic between himself and his closest rival, who was content to follow the Luxembourger's wheel as Sanchez was quickly relegated. Ahead of them the leading quartet had opened the gap to 6:20 over the maillot jaune of Evans and 3:37 over the battling duo of Contador and Schleck.

The young pair, which is expected to fill the top places on the general classification, carried on its merry way as those behind, the other overall contenders such as Van Den Broeck, Menchov, Ivan Basso and Leipheimer - assisted ably by Lance Armstrong - maintained a steady rhythm and held the gap between themselves and the Saxo Bank-Astana alliance to 1:30 with about 35km to go.

Ahead of them Cunego, Casar, Sanchez and Charteau maintained their 2:11 advantage over Schleck and Contador as the summit of the Madeleine beckoned; the descent offering respite from the brutal slopes of the previous 25km and the key to a seemingly imminent stage victory for one of them.

Further down the Madeleine's slopes several tales were being played out, one of them featuring Evans, who just 48 hours earlier had been enjoying one of his best days on the bike when he rode to the maillot jaune but was now seeing his Tour unravel with a display of suffering that dashed the hopes of many an Australian cycling fan thanks to the aforementioned broken elbow. The grit he displayed in getting through the day's parcours would make those same fans proud, however.

Ahead of the Australian, the men hitherto below him on general classification - Menchov, Gesink, Leipheimer and Rodriguez - had formed their own group and had left Armstrong and Basso behind in an attempt to limit their losses to the young charges at the head of proceedings.

Holding on to the end

With a fast-charging Schleck and Contador behind them, the four men up front did their best to maintain the crucial two minutes' advantage, which had decreased to 1:56 with about 18km left in the stage. Having battled hard to stay in contact with the pair of GC favourites, Sammy Sanchez held a gap of 30 seconds that was on the decrease as his best efforts on the descent started to pay off.

The battle for the maillot jaune going on behind them, the leading quartet made its way under the 10km-to-go flag and although it was too premature for stage win machinations to begin, the likelihood of Sanchez bursting out of the group in an attempt to secure victory wasn't far from the minds of Casar, Cunego and Charteau, the latter two having never before taken a Tour stage victory, despite the Italian topping the best young rider classification in the 2006 edition of la grande boucle.

And while the gap was down to 36 seconds with three kilometres remaining, the break's advantage seemed purely academic; it was time for the roulette to begin, with each man watching the other inside the final 2,000 metres. As the flamme rouge beckoned it almost cost them dearly however, with Schleck, Contador and the previously dropped Moreau making contact with just a kilometre to race.

To the relief of the break the overall contenders abstained from the sprint, which featured several tricky bends in the final 500 metres, mastered best by Casar, who held on for a win at the end of over 200 brutal kilometres that had a profound effect on the direction of this year's Tour de France.

Sammy Sanchez, who personified purgatory in the final 10km as he struggled to regain time on the men who had dangled the carrot ahead of him for the final 40km, finished over a minute in arrears but earned himself a place in the top three on general classification and undoubtedly a legion of new fans thanks to his determination in the face of an onslaught.

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