Sanjeev.NET

Armstrong loses lead in Le Tour

Lance Armstrong lost his grip on the Tour de France yellow jersey as Dane Mickael Rasmussen won stage nine with a strong display of climbing on Sunday.

Armstrong finished the day in third place overall, more than two minutes behind new leader Jens Voigt.

Rasmussen, who rides for the Radobank team, took the lead after 3km and won maximum points on all of the climbs.

He held off the challenge of German Voigt and Christophe Moreau, who moved above Armstrong into second place.

Voigt, who had started the day one minute behind Lance Armstrong, had been in a group tracking Rasmussen for much of the race but broke away with Moreau on the final climb of the day, the Ballon d�Alsace.

It gave the German the yellow jersey for the second time in his career while Rasmussen became the 10th Dane to win a stage on the Tour.

But Voigt admits that he is unlikely to keep the lead when the riders head for the Alps after Monday's rest day.

'I could not be happier but it cost me a lot of effort and I expect to pay a high price in two days time. But today I have the jersey and that's great.'

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 10, 2005 at 8:35 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.