Tour de France:Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo emerged from a straight fight with breakaway partner Franco Pellizotti to claim victory on the ninth stage of the Tour de France on Sunday afternoon.
The Bouygues Telecom rider claimed his team's second stage win of the 2009 tour after responding to the challenge of fellow escapee Pellizotti (Liquigas) over the final metres of the 160km stage between Saint-Gaudens and Tarbes.
Oscar Freire won the sprint for third place, coming in 34 seconds behind the breakaway duo, while Rinaldo Nocentini retained the yellow jersey by six seconds from Alberto Contador and eight from Lance Armstrong, as all the leading general classification contenders finished in the peloton.
With limited movement in the classification, there was also no change in the race for the green jersey - Thor Hushovd still leading from Britain's Mark Cavendish going into tomorrow's rest day - but there was movement in the mountain standings, Egoi Martinez taking over the polka-dot jersey from Christophe Kern.
Fedrigo's win was his second career victory on the Tour, and was on the cards when he and Pellizotti broke from the early leading pack with
Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) and Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) before the first climb of the day up Col d'Aspin.
Duque soon dropped off the leading quartet as Voigt led the charge into the mountains. But then he too succumbed to the relentless pace of Fedrigo and Pellizotti.
The leading pair continued to drive home their advantage through the Pyrenean stage, extending their lead to around five minutes as they ate up the kilometres over Col du Tourmalet.
The peloton worked hard to close the gap to the leading pair over the final 70km but began to lose their discipline as the line approached and never looked in danger of reeling in the leaders.
With the pack out of the equation, the fight to the finished boiled down to a head-to-head between Fedrigo and Italy's Pellizotti.
Home favourite Fedrigo held the lead coming into the final two kilometres, with Pellizotti content to bide his time in his wheel tracks. But when the Italian kicked for the line through the final turn Fedrigo had enough in the tank to come back at him over the final 500 metres and claim a hard-fought triumph.
The racing resumes on Tuesday when the riders tackle the 194km 10th stage from Limoges to Issoudun.