France's Thomas Voeckler seized the Tour de France lead in a crash-ridden ninth stage Sunday with more favorites caught up in the carnage. Alberto Contador suffered an early spill before getting back on the saddle amid suggestions that he was pushed while Alexandre Vinokourov was among injured several riders to pull out of the race. A television car later hit the leading group. Voeckler belonged to a breakaway launched with compatriot Sandy Casar and Spain's Luis-Leon Sanchez, who outsprinted the two Frenchmen for the stage victory. Overall, Voeckler leads Sanchez by 1:49 and Australia's Cadel Evans by 2:26. The stage was marred by the most serious of several big pile-ups since the Tour started. Ninety kilometers from the line, on the Pas de Peyrol descent, a dozen riders fell on to the tarmac or tumbled into a roadside ditch and four were taken to hospital. Kazakh Vinokourov, third in the Tour in 2003 and riding the race for the last time, had to be carried into an ambulance by his teammates with a broken thigh and called it quits. Belgian Jurgen Van den Broeck, fifth last year, tried to make it back on his bike but pulled out a few hundred meters further down the road with a broken shoulder blade. His teammate Frederik Willems fractured his collarbone in the same crash while American David Zabriskie broke a wrist and also called it a day.
