TARBES: Former French champion Pierrick Fedrigo won the 160.5-km ninth stage of the Tour de France, from St Gaudens to Tarbes on Sunday.

His breakaway companion Franco Pellizotti of Italy was second while Spaniard Oscar Freire took third place.

Italian Rinaldo Nocentini retained the leader’s yellow jersey. Astana’s Alberto Contador stayed second overall six seconds adrift with teammate Lance Armstrong third, two seconds further back.

Fedrigo and Pellizotti were the last remaining riders of a break launched after 12-km in the final stage in the Pyrenees.

German Jens Voigt, Columbia’s Leonardo Duque, Fedrigo and Pellizotti broke from a group of early fugitives before the first ascent. Seven-times champion Armstrong surprised the pack with a sudden acceleration after 24 km that helped catch the riders dropped from the breakaway but Nocentini followed as the bunch swiftly regrouped.

The leading quartet reached the foot of the Col d’Aspin with a 4:50 lead over the peloton and dropped Duque. A group of nine, including Spain’s Egoi Martinez, French David Moncoutie and Contador’s best man at Astana Sergio Paulinho, counter-attacked in the ascent, dropping Voigt. In the ascent to Col du Tourmalet, all the favourites stayed quiet behind Nocentini’s AG2R La Mondiale teammates, who set the pace.

Dutchman Laurens Ten Dam of the Rabobank team, who was in the chasing group, crashed early in the descent. He remounted his bike with scratches on his back and but was caught by the peloton, which had Rabobank and Caisse d’Epargne setting the pace on the flat final part. But the peloton could not catch Pellizotti and Fedrigo, who battled it out for stage win, the Frenchman giving his Bouygues Telecom team their second stage victory on this Tour.