Former French champion Fedrigo takes stage win

Former French champion Pierrick Fedrigo won the 160.5-km ninth stage of the Tour de France, from St Gaudens to Tarbes yesterday.

His breakaway companion Franco Pellizotti, of Italy, was second while Spaniard Oscar Freire outsprinted the main bunch to snatch third place.

Italian Rinaldo Nocentini retained the leader's yellow jersey. Astana's Alberto Contador stayed second overall six seconds adrift with team-mate Lance Armstrong third, two seconds further back, after none of the favourites attacked in the stage's two climbs.

The riders rushed from the finish to Tarbes's airport to catch their flights to Limoges for the race's first rest day today.

Fedrigo, national champion in 2005, and Pellizotti were the last remaining riders of a break launched after 12 km in the final stage in the Pyrenees.

"At first we were four, then three, finally two and then I won. It's a great moment of happiness," said the 30-year-old, who won a Tour stage in 2006.

In the ascent to the Col du Tourmalet, all favourites stayed quiet behind Nocentini's AG2R La Mondiale team-mates, who set the pace.

Dutchman Laurens Ten Dam, of the Rabobank team, who was in the chasing group, crashed early in the descent.

He remounted his bike with scratches on his back but was caught by the peloton, which had Rabobank and Caisse d'Epargne setting the pace on the flat final part to set up a mass sprint.

But the peloton could not catch Pellizotti and Fedrigo, who battled it out for stage victory, the Frenchman giving his Bouygues Telecom team their second stage win on this Tour.