Sorensen Breaks Away to First Stage Victory

By Paul Sherwen
July 16, 2009

It was a long day in the saddle from Tonnerre to Vittel, which finally smiled on the breakaway group. It wasn't easy, though, after 50 km were covered in the first hour of the race with the lead group of seven finally reaching the clear after 80 km of racing.

The sprinters teams offered no presents to race leader Rinaldo Nocentini's AG2R team and forced them to establish the pace for the whole day. That will tire them for tomorrow's defense of the jersey as we head on to a medium mountain stage. The Vosges mountains are not often visited by the Tour de France, but when they are there is always a big battle.

Of the leading seven, the most astute was Niki Sorensen, a Dane who is better known as a team helper for Saxo Bank. With half an hour to race, he knew that everyone was looking at the Italian Franco Pelizotti as the favorite and strong man of the group.

He took the opportunity to jump out of the pack and was quickly joined by Frenchman Sylvain Calzati, the pair never opened up a gap of more than 15 seconds over the rest of the break and looked doomed to be reeled in.

When Sorensen felt that they were about to get caught, he attacked the Frenchman and the rest is history. He soloed to his first ever Tour de France stage victory and at the finish could hardly believe what he had done.

Mark Cavendish led the pack home almost six minutes back, increasing his lead in the Point classification. The only panic was for Levi Leipheimer and Cadel Evans, who crashed inside the final three kms, but being given the same time as the rest of the pack.

Lance Armstrong looked to enjoy his day as he was often seen smiling at the camera. He now knows that his next rendezvous is looming with another curtain about to be raised on the Tour de France 2009 -- the mountains are up next.