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The last wild-card team picked for the 2007 Tour de France showed Tuesday that the Tour organizers made the right choice, after Barloworld’s the unknown Colombian climber Juan Soler earned an impressive solo win in the 159.5km stage 9 mountain stage from Val-d’Isère to Briançon.

Soler attacked out of the peleton halfway up the 12km Cat. 1 Col du Télégraphe and crossed a three-minute gap to join the remnants of a six-man breakaway on the early slopes of the hors catégorie Col du Galibier. He then methodically rode them all off his wheel. From there, the relatively unknown Colombian rider made a daring dash to the finish, charging first over the top of the Galibier, then holding his lead all the way to the finish in Briançon, where he stopped the clock in 4:14:24.

“It’s a beautiful victory for me and the team,” said Soler, 24, who won last year’s Circuit de Lorraine (after taking the major climbing stage in a solo break) and in 2005 won a stage of his national tour. “I’m a climber, so it’s a dream for me to win in a stage over the Galibier.”

Soler’s dream day was a nightmare for pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov. The Astana team captain, who crashed hard on stage 5, was caught out by an attack from fellow GC contender Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Épargne) halfway up 18km the Galibier climb. And while most of the other favorites were able to respond, the quiet Kazakh could not. He finished 20th on the day, 3:24 behind Soler, and some two and a half minutes behind the main yellow-jersey contenders - except for CSC’s Fränk Schleck and Rabobank’s Denis Menchov.

Stage 9 Results
1 Juan Mauricio Soler (Col) Barloworld 4.14.24 (38.92 km/h)
2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0.38
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto
4 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel
5 Iban Mayo Diez (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir 0.42
6 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank
7 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
8 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team
9 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana
10 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC
11 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 0.46
12 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
13 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
14 Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir
15 José Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
16 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 3.23
17 Chris Horner (USA) Predictor - Lotto
18 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana
19 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole
20 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana
FULL RESULTS and LIVE TEXT COVERAGE by Cycling News

General Classification after Stage 9
1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 43.52.48
2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 2.35
3 Iban Mayo Diez (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir 2.39
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 2.41
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel 3.08
6 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 3.18
7 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 3.39
8 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 3.50
9 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.53
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team 5.06

FULL REPORT by VeloNews
LEIPHEIMER REMAINS OPTIMISTIC — VeloNews
BOB AND AL’S RECAP OF STAGE 9 by Versus
LEVI LEIPHEIMER INTERVIEW by Versus
INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL RASMUSSEN by Versus
SOLER HERNANDEZ WINS STAGE 9 by Versus
RECAP OF STAGE 9 CLIMB by Versus
GRAHAM WATSON’S STAGE 9 PHOTOS

The climb of Col du Galibier and the earlier descent of Col de I’lseran — Versus

Burghardt/Dog Collision — Versus