AIX-LES-BAINS, France -- Russia's Sergei
Ivanov broke clear with nine kilometers remaining to win the
ninth stage of the Tour de France on Monday, as the peloton
reached the foot of the Alps at Aix-les-Bains.
With five gruelling mountain stages to come over the next
six days, Lance Armstrong and the other leading candidates for
overall victory were content to stay in the pack and conserve
energy on the 185-km run from Pontarlier.
|  | | Serguei Ivanov celebrates winning the ninth stage as he crosses the finish line Monday. |
Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Joseba Beloki and Christophe Moreau,
who are all around 35 minutes behind race leader Stuart O'Grady
after Sunday's dramatic escape, finished in the main bunch of
riders, 24 seconds behind Ivanov.
They did not quite get the rest and recuperation they could
have done with, though, as the leaders set a frantic pace.
With weather conditions much improved from the numbing cold
and rain of Sunday, Ivanov took the stage in 3 hours, 57
minutes, 48 seconds, at an average speed of 46.678 kilometers per
hour.
O'Grady's lead at the head of the standings is 4 minutes,
32 seconds over Frenchman Francois Simon, who is likely to
attack on Tuesday.
"There's not much I can do about it," said Australian
O'Grady, who also holds the green jersey for the leading points
scorer. "He's a better climber than I am.
"I wasn't feeling too good today and if it wasn't for the
yellow jersey I probably wouldn't have finished in the main
pack."
The biggest danger to the likes of Armstrong is the Kazakh
Andrei Kivilev, who maintained his advantage by finishing in the
main bunch on Monday.
Kivilev, a renowned climber, is 13 minutes, 12 seconds ahead
of Armstrong going into the mountains, and could be a problem
for the American who is looking to complete a hat-trick of wins
in the race.
Ivanov's victory on Monday came after he joined David
Etxeberria of Spain and Australian Brad McGee, who attacked
after 36 kms.
The Russian staged a solo break on the final descent with
nine kms to go and managed to hold on for the win, with
Etxeberria finishing second and McGee third, 16 and 17 seconds
behind, respectively.
Ivanov was one of three riders denied permission to start
the Tour last year after blood tests revealed haematocrit levels
above the permitted 50 percent.
It was the second time he had crossed the line first in a
Tour stage finishing at Aix-les-Bains, although this was his
first official win.
The Russian, now with Fassa Bortolo, was part of the TVM
team caught up in the doping scandal that hit the 1998 Tour.
As the race neared Aix-les-Bains, amid all the protests
following police raids on team hotels, the peloton allowed the
TVM team a clear path to the finish. It was Ivanov who crossed the line first, although the stage
had already been annulled.
"I took the same line but this time I was alone," Ivanov
said after his victory.
There was little in the way of excitement on Monday apart
from the three-man break, although the race was run at a swift
pace throughout.
The peloton briefly split in two on the final, twisting
climb at Cote de Bossy, but the riders were soon back together.
Moreau suffered a puncture with 15 kms to go, but his team
mates dropped back to shepherd him into the pack again.
Monday's stage was really just a warm-up for the real tests
to come in the Alps and Pyrenees.
The first of those key mountain stages is on Tuesday when
the peloton will tackle three massive climbs over a 209-km
course from Aix-les-Bains up to the fearsome Alpe d'Huez. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
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