Stage 09: Val d'Isere - Briancon

Today's stage was won by Colombian Juan Maurico Soler-Hernandez. This is his first Tour de France. He had a lead of 3 minutes and managed to win the stage by 38 seconds. It was downhill to the finish and hard to hold off the bigger guys.

Nothing has changed much in the general classification. The highest ranking American is still Levi Leipheimer but he's 4 minutes behind. Vinokourov lost some time today and he was considered a favorite, but hasn't been having good luck as he's now 8 minutes behind the leader and that's pretty hard to make up.

I'm on the motorcycle tomorrow so I hope to have lots of images.