STAGE 9 OF THE 2009 TOUR RESULTS

Stage 9 of the 2009 Tour de France began in Saint-Gaudens. The route took them over and down the Col du Tourmalet, passing through our ski village of La Mongie and the famous village of Lourdes before ending 99.4 miles later in the French city of Tarbes at the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains.

Stage 9 was definitely “Strange” and not as expected. A break away by Franco Pellizotti and Pierrick Fedrigo on the first main climb of the Col d-Aspin and they stayed away for the balance of the race! There was no real battles on the mountain stages because the finish was just too far away.

The Frenchman, Pierrick Fedrigo took the Stage, his second in the Tour de France, just nosing out the Italian Pellizotti and less than a minute in front of the Peloton. This makes three stage victories for the French in the 2009 Tour!

All of the leaders finished in the first chase group so all of the times of the leaders remain the same! Eight seconds separates the top three riders as they fly to Limoges today and have a rest day tomorrow.

The Jerseys at the end of today belonged to:

Top Team Overall: Team Astana

Yellow Jersey: Rinaldo Noncentini (Italy)

Green Jersey: Thor Hushovd (Norway)

Polk-a-dot Jersey: Egoi Martinez (Spain)

White Jersey: Tony Martin (24 year old German)

For more information on Lourdes, visit my older blogs for the story of my visit there last spring on March 11, 2009.

http://marthajans.blogspot.com/2009/03/lourdes-france.html

Tomorrow, July 13^th, Monday, is a REST DAY for the riders…so I’m taking a rest day also. But, I’d like to leave you today with a story that I found on the Internet:

By Joe Silva

Perhaps the most unattractive thing about the Tour De France passing through one of the many towns it visits every year is that in just about 24 hours it’s gone. It’s a rolling caravan of pomp, prestige, and pain touching the lives of millions of countrymen even if the interaction amounts to not much more than a few blurred seconds as it whizzes down their city center…….

So true Joe, but the memories will last a lifetime!

Au revoir until Tuesday!