Racing | Tour De France | Stage 9

That's all from sunny Briancon folks. The next few stages are somewhat easier, and will favour the sprinters if they have anything left after today. We'll be back tomorrow at 12:00 (11:00 BST) with live coverage of stage 10 between Tallard and Marseille. See you then!

Provisional results

1 Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez (Col ¦ Barloworld 04:14:24
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa ¦ Caisse D’Epargne) 00:00:38
3 Cadel Evans (Aus ¦ Predictor - Lotto) 00:00:38
4 Alberto Contador (Spa ¦ Discovery Channel Team) 00:00:40
5 Iban Mayo (Spa ¦ Saunier Duval - Prodir) 00:00:42

General classification after stage 9

1 Michael Rasmussen (Den ¦ Rabobank) 39:37:42
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa ¦ Caisse D'Epargne) 00:02:35
3 Iban Mayo (Spa ¦ Saunier Duval) 0:02:39

Well, that was eventful but it didn't change the pecking orde, except Linus Gerdemann will drop out of second place. Valverde picked up a few bonus seconds, as did Evans. Vino lost a couple of minutes. Now we'll have to wait until Saturday's time trial to see more GC shake ups.

But it's Soler who wins the stage! Superb effort to hold off the yellow jersey group. That last uphill really hurt. Evans is leading it out for second, but Valverde takes it ahead of the Australian.

The Colombian in just his second year as pro, has done a great ride to win today. He will move up a little on GC, maybe into the top 20. But the rest of the top 10 standings won't change a great deal. The chase group hits the final uphill before the finish, and Moreau loses a little ground.

Juan Mauricio Soler will win the stage for sure, as he has 55 seconds on the reformed yellow jersey group. 2km to go now.

Cobo has been dropped from that chase group, which is just 11 seconds off the yellow jersey group. They finally get them back. Well that was exciting.

Rasmussen's group has just caught Popovych an Contador. Seven now chasing Mr Soler. The chasers behind Rasmussen are at 15 seconds. Now 10 econds. If they work, they'll get back.

Well you have to hand it to Michael Rasmussen. He can take time out of his rivals on a descent. They look to be all working now, as Evans swaps off with Moreau. No, the Saunier riders aren't working. That's crazy.

So the situation is: Soler leads by a minute from Popovych and Contador, then Rasmussen, Guti, Valverde, Kirchen and Astarloza at 1'15, then Kloden, Evans, Sastre, Mayo, Moreau, Cobo, Leipheimer at 1'32. Vino's group is at 3'17.