Luis-Leon Sanchez Wins Crash-Marred Tour de France Stage Nine

Luis-Leon Sanchez of Rabobank joined a breakaway in the first quarter of Stage Nine of the 2011 Tour de France Sunday, and stayed out front through the rest of the race, winning the stage and taking second in the General Classification.

The 165-kilometer breakaway came down to a three-way sprint finish between Sanchez, Thomas Voeckler, and Sandy Casar—an eerie echo of Stage Nine of 2010 when Casar beat Sanchez in a three-way sprint after a long breakaway over many hills.

“In the end, it’s true that there was a rematch of last year with Casar but Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne was very different because I didn’t know the final very well,” Sanchez said.

“Today I had studied the course and I knew there was a hill and then a turn at the finish. Above all, I had tremendous confidence—I felt very strong.”

Stage Made for a Breakaway

Stage Nine was a challenging stage, with eight categorized climbs and an uphill finish. It looked like the perfect stage for a breakaway to stay away and steal the win. In the end, that is what happened, but not in a way anyone had envisioned.

Instead of surviving on speed, the break stayed away because of a serious crash—one of several in the stage, in a Tour which has been marred by numerous serious crashes since Stage One.

Thomas Voeckler of Europcar made the first successful attack 41 kilometers into the day. He sprinted to the top of the first climb to win the King of the Mountain points, and kept on going. Over the next 15 minutes he was joined by Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank,) Niki Terpstra (Quick Step,) Sandy Casar (FDJ,) Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky,) and Johnny Hoogerland (Movistar.)

Shortly before the peak, David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo,) Andrey Zeits (Astana,) Heimar Zubeldia (RadioShack,) Amet Txurruka (Euskatel,) and Lars Bak (HTC-Highroad) tangled and crashed. All were able to continue except Txurruka, who withdrew.

The next rider cut down by fate was Alberto Contador, who collided with a fan and went down ninety kilometers into the stage. The Saxo Bank rider was able to continue, after switching to a new bike.

The six breakaway riders gained almost four minutes on the peloton before Garmin-Cervelo decided to shut it down. Voeckler was only 1:29 behind race leader Thor Hushovd, and Garmin wanted to keep the big Norwegian in yellow through the rest day and possibly even until Stage Twelve, the first real mountain stage.

Next: Another Devasting Crash