Armstrong loses Tour lead

Lance Armstrong lost his Tour de France leader's yellow jersey to Germany's Jens Voigt as the race reached its first halt at the end of Sunday's 171-km ninth stage.

Isolated the day before in the first mountains of the Tour when his Discovery Channel team mates unexpectedly faltered, the six-times Tour champion was content to check out his main rivals for overall victory in the six climbs on the stage between Gerardmer and Mulhouse.

Dane Michael Rasmussen seized his chance to stage a long solo breakaway and to give his Rabobank team their second victory in succession in just over four hours and eight minutes.

Voigt, who chased Rasmussen with France's Christophe Moreau, finished third, three minutes and four seconds behind the Dane.

The CSC rider took the overall lead as the main pack, including Armstrong, finished more than three minutes behind him.

Voigt, who was one minute behind the Texan going into the stage, was rewarded for his consistency since the start of the Tour with his second yellow jersey. He led the Tour briefly for one day in 2001.

But the powerful German, dubbed "the Boeing", is not a high mountain climber and is unlikely to keep the lead when the peloton tackle the Alps after Monday's rest day.

"I could not be happier but it cost me a lot of effort and I expect to pay a high price in two days time," Voigt said.

"But today I have the jersey and that's great."

MOVED CLEAR

Holder of the King of the Mountains polkadot jersey since the previous stage to Gerardmer, Rasmussen attacked in the opening five km.

The former mountain bike world champion was first accompanied by Italian Dario Cioni and then moved clear, the same way his team mate Pieter Weening had done the day before.

Rasmussen, 31, was first to the top of all six of the day's climbs including the Ballon d'Alsace, the first ever mountain to feature on the Tour course in 1905.

The Dane, winner of a stage in the Vuelta two years ago, collected 56 points for the climber's classification in the stage.

"I just went to collect points for the King of the Mountains classification, and I just felt better and better and it lasted all the way to the line," Rasmussen said.

Moreau, fourth in the 2000 Tour, and Voigt chased Rasmussen on the last two climbs but were too late to catch the leader.

In the pack, Armstrong was content with a lull in hostilities after Friday's constant attacks from T-Mobile riders like Alexander Vinokourov, Andreas Kloeden and Jan Ullrich.

Ullrich suffered a big scare when he crashed on the descent of the first climb, the Col de la Grosse Pierre, but the 1997 Tour champion was unhurt and able to make it back to the main pack.

The riders will be flown to Grenoble for a rest day on Monday before tackling the Alps with a 192.5-km 10th stage to Courchevel.