Sports

Tour de France Stage 12 Nicki Sorensen Crosses First

by Barbara McPherson | July 16, 2009 at 08:08 am

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The Tour de France stage 12 saw Nicki Sorensen riding for Saxo-Bank cross the finish line first. Stage 12 Tonnerre to Vittel was a relatively flat 211.5 km with some points for climbers. Nicki Sorensen was part of a seven man breakaway that rode together from about the 78 km mark. They eventually stretched their lead to close to six minutes. 22 km from the finish, Nicki Sorensen and Sylvain Calzati, Agritubel, broke away from the seven leaders to open a half minute gap. When Sylvain Calzati flagged at 5 km, Nicki Sorensen pedalled away to the win. This is Nicki Sorensen's seventh Tour and his first stage win.

Today's first three stage winners were: Nicki Sorensen, Saxo-Bank; Laurent Lefevre, Bbox; Franco Pellizotti, Liquigas.

Mark Cavendish, Columbia, retains the green jersey for top points in the sprint contest.

The overall standings of the Tour leaders remains the same as stage 11. In order one through four are Rinaldo Nocentin AG2R, Alberto Contador, Astana, Lance Armstrong, Astana, Levi Leipheimer, Astana. The time break between first and third remains at eight seconds.

Crashes and injuries are taking their toll on the riders in the Tour. The crashes on stage 11 claimed three riders who did not complete today. Rui Alberto Faris da Costa, Caisse d'Eparne, out with torn ligaments, Angelo Furlan, Lampre,and Roman Faillu, Agritubel all were forced to withdraw. Vladimir Efimkin, AG2R was riding hurt. Today Levi Leipheimer, Astana and Cadel Evans, Silence-Lotto had a spill within the three kilometre mark so will have their time count with the peloton.

Stage 13 of the Tour will take the riders from Vittel to Colmar, a distance of 200 km. This is classified as a medium mountain stage which is expected to see some time changes in the Tour leaders. Stage 13 of the Tour was scheduled to have radio silence again, but that experiment has been cancelled.