Tour de France: Deadly Dekker pounces for stage win

Erik Dekker won stage eight of the Tour de France but Australian Stuart O’Grady was also celebrating as he retook the leader’s yellow jersey.

The pair joined a 14-man breakaway which established a lead of over 30 minutes on the peloton as Dutchman Dekker held his nerve to take the race for the Rabobank team.

Dekker held off Kelme’s Aitor Gonzalez, who was second, and compatriot Servais Knaven of Domo-Farm Frites, who came home in third.

The trio, plus Dekker’s team-mate Marc Wauters, attacked from the breakaway with 25 kilometres to go after the group had built a 32 minutes 50 seconds lead the biggest in post-war Tour history.

Credit Agricol’s O’Grady kept pace with the attack in a bid to secure the green sprints jersey from Telekom’s Erik Zabel.

But the Australian found himself in contention to oust team-mate Jens Voight from the top of the general classification as the peloton showed little inclination to chase the leaders on a cold, wet day close to the Swiss border.

Lance Armstrong’s US Postal Service, Jan Ullrich’s Telekom and Joseba Beloki’s ONCE were not represented among the 14 in the breakaway and could summon no momentum between them.

The result was that the three favourites to win the Tour slipped further down the standings, with Armstrong needing to make up a gap of 35-19 on O’Grady if he is to win a third consecutive Tour title.

The lead is likely to be slashed in the Alps as O’Grady is no climber but the difference ought to be big enough to concern the American.

The 14 - Wauters, Dekker and Bram de Groot (Rabobank), Gonzalez, Ludo Dieckxsens (Lampre-Daikin), Nicola Loda (Fassa Bortolo), Pascal Chanteur and Sven Teutenberg (Festina), O’Grady, Andrei Kivilev (Cofidis), Ludovic Turpin (AG2R), Francois Simon (Bonjour), Jacky Durand (Francaise des Jeux) and Knaven - attacked just 10km into the stage.

The Rabobank trio used their superior numbers to control the leading pack as it became apparent that the 14 would be allowed to stay in front.

Their influence paid off as Dekker pulled away with Knaven in tow.

Wauters followed with Gonzalez and the men in orange worked in tandem to engineer maximum advantage for Dekker.

The 25-year-old eased away in the final metres to leave Knaven banging his handlebars in frustration.

David Millar - the only Briton in the race - is still the Lanterne Rouge, the unofficial title given to the rider last in the official standings.

The Cofidis man has had a difficult first week, falling twice, and is almost two hours behind O’Grady.