Tour de France: Good Tour / Bad Tour - Losers

Alberto Contador

Contador struggled to stay on his bike on several occasions, during the first week, and it seemed that combined with his Giro exploits was a bit too much. He was caught up in the huge crash, on stage one and lost over a minute and was later, allegedly, pushed over by Vladimir Karpets. He did look like he might be catching on the main contenders, but bonking on the Galibier spelled the end for the 2010 champion. He did earn respect of fan, especially after thumping a rude spectator, but he will have to look at his calendar hard next year, if he hopes to win another tour.

Video: 2011 Tour de France - Stage 9 - Flecha/Hoogerland crash

TdF: Sanchez wins in the Massif Central as Voeckler takes yellow

Luis Leon Sanchez sprinted away from his breakaway compatriots, to win Stage 9, while Thomas Voeckler took the yellow.

Voeckler looked like he wanted to add a stage victory to the yellow, but Sanchez was too powerful and put in a 5 second gap in the last 100 metres. The Spaniard, who finished 11th in last year’s tour, now moves in to second in the classification, with a 37 second gap over Cadel Evans. Third across the line was Sandy Casar, who didn’t have the legs to challenge Sanchez and Voeckler.