Ricco shows his strength

Riccardo Ricco of Saunier Duval took a dominant stage win as the Tour finally reached the high mountains on Stage 9.

On the steepest part of the Col d'Aspin, Ricco launched from the field through a chase group, then right past Sebastian Lang, who had been in a lead group all day long.

Ricco managed to hold off the entire field on a 28-kilometer descent to the finish, for his 2nd win of the Tour. Ricco is seen by Italian fans as a successor to Marco Pantani, the great Italian climber.

Ricco's teammate David de la Fuente holds onto the King of the Mountains jersey, but it looks like that's Ricco's jersey to lose between now and Paris at this point. Next year, he's got to be a Tour favorite.

Stage 9 Results:
1) Riccardo Ricco, Saunier Duval 5:39:28
2) Vladimir Efimkin, AG2R @ 1:04
3) Cyril Dessel, AG2R @1:17
4) Dmitri Fofonov, Credit Agricole, same time
5) Christian Knees, Milram, s.t.
6) Maxime Monfort, Cofidis, s.t.
7) Alejandro Valverde, Caisse d'Epargne, s.t.
8) Roman Kreuziger, Liquigas, s.t.
9) Damiano Cunego, Lampre, s.t.
10) Yaroslav Popovych, Silence-Lotto, s.t.

In the GC, Stefan Schumacher lost time to the overall leaders, as did David Millar and Thomas Lövkvist. That moves Garmin-Chipotle's Christian Vande Velde up into 3rd overall, 44 seconds behind Columbia's Kim Kirchen.

General Classification after Stage 9:
1) Kim Kirchen, Team Columbia, 38:07:19
2) Cadel Evans, Silence-Lotto, @ :06
3) Christian Vande Velde, Garmin-Chipotle, @ :44
4) Stefan Schumacher, Gerolsteiner, @ :56
5) Denis Menchov, Rabobank, @ 1:03
6) Alejandro Valverde, Caisse d'Epargne, @ 1:12 7) Stijn Devolder, Quick Step, @ 1:21 8) Oscar Pereiro, Caisse d'Epargne, @ 1:21 9) Samuel Sanchez, Euskaltel-Euskadi, @ 1:27 10) Carlos Sastre, CSC-Saxo Bank, @ 1:34

Kim Kirchen keeps the yellow jersey and retakes the lead in the green jersey competition. Lövkvist loses the white jersey to Andy Schleck.