FOIX, France – Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez handed his stricken Rabobank team a welcome boost by soloing to victory on a memorable Tour de France 14th stage Sunday. Sanchez, whose team has been decimated by crashes, had been part of an 11-man break which built a 16-minute lead on the peloton well before the end of the 191 km stage from Limoux to Foix. And after counter-attacking Frenchman Sandy Casar on the 38 km descent towards the finish, the Spaniard made a decisive move with just over 11 km to race. Sanchez went on unchallenged to finish 47sec ahead of Slovakian Peter Sagan (Liquigas) with FDJ rider Casar in third and the main peloton, including race leader Bradley Wiggins, coming over the finish 18 minutes in arrears. Although the early breakaway had built a significant lead that never looked under threat, they were given further room by the dramatics going on in their wake – and which showed Wiggins' sense of fair play. Defending champion Cadel Evans started the day 3min 19sec adrift but could have finished it far worse off after falling victim to several mechanical problems that left his hi-tech BMC team looking amateurish. Wiggins, who took the yellow jersey after stage seven last Saturday, will take a 2:05 lead over teammate Chris Froome into Monday's mainly flat stage from Samatan to Pau. Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) is still third overall at 2:23 with Evans still fourth at 3:19. — Agencies
