Casar wins ninth stage of Tour De France

Sandy Casar has won today's 204.5-kilometre ninth stage of the Tour de France from Morzine-Avoriaz to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.

Andy Schleck seized the race leader's yellow jersey for the first time in his career.

Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) holds a 21-second advantage over defending champion Alberto Contador (Astana) in what now appears to be a duel for the maillot jaune.

The duo hold a two minute 45-second lead over the remainder of the field following a second eventful Alpine stage.

Ireland's Nicolas Roche is in 17th place, seven minutes and 44 seconds behind the leader.

Triple Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins fell from 14th to 16th after finishing four minutes 55 seconds behind Casar and is now 7mins 18secs adrift overall.

Wiggins is now targeting a top-10 finish in Paris on July 25, believing his bid to be the first Briton on the Tour podium to now be over.

"I don't want to give up and throw my toys out of the pram, finish at the back or go home," said Wiggins.

"I'm going to just push on every day and maybe just recalibrate, say top 10 is now the goal.

"We put everything into it, it hasn't worked - it's not because we haven't tried.

"That's just the way it goes. That's life, unfortunately.

"You try your hardest, you do everything possible to be in good shape and it's obviously not with the best of them.

"It's only sport at the end of the day."