JULIEN PRETOT in TIGNES
Michael Rasmussen took the overall leader's yellow jersey with a commanding victory in the eighth stage yesterday.
The Dane, winner of the polka-dot King of the Mountains jersey in the last two Tours, beat Iban Mayo on the arduous 165km stage from Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes.
Mayo finished two minutes and 47 seconds behind the Rabobank rider with fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde taking third place for the Caisse d'Epargne team, 3min 12sec off the pace.
Pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov of the Astana team ended the stage 4.29 behind Rasmussen after suffering on the last ascent of the day. The Kazakh was beaten by a group of top contenders including the Australian Cadel Evans, Luxemburg's Frank Schleck and the Frenchman Christophe Moreau, who attacked eight times on the climb to Tignes.
Vinokourov, 22nd overall and 5.23 behind Rasmussen, was unable to respond to Moreau's offensive and limited the damage thanks to super-domestique Andreas Kloden, who helped him over the last three km of the final climb. Both riders sustained injuries in separate crashes on Thursday and Kloden is now 13th overall 3.46 behind Rasmussen.
"Today we had to try something. So I took my responsibilities," said Moreau, the French champion. "I was starting to get bored by this waiting game between the leaders.
"So I took a risk but I was not helped a lot by the others, let alone Valverde," added Moreau, who won the prestigious Dauphine Libere stage race last month.
The AG2R rider attacked the main pack in the first hairpin of the ascent to Tignes, leaving Vinokourov and Kloden and the German, Linus Gerdemann, behind.
T-Mobile's Gerdemann, who won Saturday's stage, was dropped five km from the summit and lost his yellow jersey but remains second overall 43 seconds behind.
Mayo lies third overall 2.39 behind with the 27-year-old Valverde, who has yet to finish the Tour in his third participation, fourth 2.51 adrift.
An 18-man breakaway took shape after the category-three Col du Bouchet and the Rabobank team, counting on Rasmussen to bring a third consecutive polka-dot jersey back to Paris and Russian Denis Menchov for the overall standings, had to chase.
Going into the ascent of the category-one Cormet de Roselend, Rasmussen, who already had two Tour stage wins to his name, caught the peloton off guard and led a group of six, including T-Mobile's Australian Michael Rogers, to the summit with an advantage of 5.10 over the yellow jersey group.
The Australian crashed with David Arroyo on the descent. The Spaniard fell over the security barrier but both riders managed to get back on their bikes. Rogers, however, sustained a shoulder injury and pulled out in tears with 29 km to go.
Compatriot Stuart O'Grady also retired after he suffered five broken ribs and fractures to three vertebrae and a shoulder blade following a crash on the same descent.
The most serious incident happened after the stage was finished, though. A spectator was in a coma after being hit by Patrik Sinkewitz as the German was riding back to his hotel. Sinkewitz was taken to hospital with facial injuries.
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