Updated at 6:39 a.m., Sunday, July 15, 2007
Cycling: Rasmussen takes over Tour de France lead
Advertiser Staff
TIGNES, France — Michael Rasmussen of Denmark won the eighth stage of the Tour de France today to take the overall lead after a second day of grueling climbs in the Alps.Rasmussen, the Tour's best climber for the past two years, crossed the finish line alone after the 102.5-mile run from Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes that featured three Category 1 climbs and an uphill finish.
Rasmussen clocked clocked 4 hours, 49 minutes, 40 seconds to earn his third Tour stage win. Iban Mayo of Spain was second, 2:47 behind, followed by Alejandro Valverde of Spain, 3:12 back.
The Danish climbing ace took the overall race leader's yellow jersey from German rider Linus Gerdemann, who had won the seventh stage Saturday. Rasmussen holds a 43-second lead over Gerdemann and a 2:39 gap over the third-placed Mayo.
Most overall race favorites stayed close to the lead, but expected contender Alexandre Vinokourov lost time to his main rivals.
"The team was incredible today," Vinokourov said of his Astana teammates, who helped escort him to prevent him from losing too much time. He has been riding with pain since injuring his knees in a crash during Thursday's stage.
It was a bad day for Gerdemann's T-Mobile team. The team's Australian leader, Michael Rogers, injured his shoulder in a crash and dropped out, as did British teammate Mark Cavendish, who had crashed twice in earlier stages.
Australia's Stuart O'Grady of Team CSC, who also crashed Sunday, injured his back, quit the race and was taken to a hospital for tests.
Riders get a rest day Monday before the last Alpine course, the 99.1-mile Stage 9 from the Val d'Isere ski station to Briancon, featuring the Iseran and Galibier passes, two ascents that are among the hardest in the three-week race.
