Tour de France

Today’s 96.9-mile ride from Pau to Hautacam features famed Tour ascents up the Tourmalet and Hautacam, among the most challenging in the Pyrenees, and so difficult that they do not have a classification in cycling’s ranking system.

A review of what happened Sunday and a look at what to

expect in today’s stage:

* Sunday’s stage: A 139.2-mile trek through the Pyrenees from Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre that included two Category 1 climbs: the Peyresourde pass and the Aspin pass.

* Winner: Riccardo Ricco of Italy won his second Tour stage with a spectacular solo breakaway that left his rivals behind when he started his attack up the Aspin.

* Yellow jersey: Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg -- the Team Columbia leader -- retained the overall lead ahead of Cadel Evans of Australia, who recovered from a crash and did not lose any time. Christian Vande Velde of United States rose from fourth to third.

* Quote of the day: “It was totally improvised. I went all out to the finish. . . . I was really fast today.” -- Ricco.

STAGE 9 RESULTS 1. Riccardo Ricco, Italy: 5:39:28

2. Vladimir Efimkin, Russia: 1:14 behind

3. Cyril Dessel, France: 1:17 behind

4. Dmitry Fofonov, Kazakhstan: same time

5. Christian Knees, Germany: same time

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OVERALL STANDINGS

Kim Kirchen, Luxembourg: 38:07:19

Cadel Evans, Australia: 0:06 behind

Christian Vande Velde, U.S.: 0:44 behind

Stefan Schumacher, Germany: 0:56 behind

5. Denis Menchov, Russia: 1:03 behind