The 2011 Tour de France has a new leader after the second mountain stage in two days. French cyclist Thomas Voeckler took second place in Stage 9, but that was enough to leap his way up to the lead in the general classification. Luis-Leon Sanchez won the stage at 5:27:09, five second better than Voeckler. Philippe Gilbert came in fourth, 3:59 behind Sanchez.
Thor Hushovd fell precipitously by lagging 6:47 behind in this stage. His teammate and Durango, CO, native Tom Danielson finished in 13th with 3:59 behind the winner. Hushovd dropped to 24th overall, 5:13 behind Voeckler's 38:35:11. Luis-Leon Sanchez took second place overall with his victory on Sunday, but he is 1:49 behind Voeckler. Cdel Evans slipped to third overall.
Gilbert widened his lead for control of the green jersey, moving up to 217 points. Jose Joaquin Rojas is in second with 172 points.
This stage was marked by several crashes. Alexandre Vinokourov was approaching the top 10 in the race this year, but he broke his femur in a crash and is now out of the race. Jurgen van den Broeck, Frederik Williams and David Zabriskie also were injured during the crash and abandoned the event. A second one occurred with a passing car, which required treatment for the riders, but no eliminations.
Monday is a rest day.
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