Tour de France
Moncoutie wins stage; Armstrong blasts French reporters


The Associated Press


FIGEAC, France — Lance Armstrong finished ninth in today's stage of the Tour de France and accused French reporters of trying to rummage through his hotel room in hopes of finding evidence of doping.
Frenchman David Moncoutie won the 11th stage. Countryman Thomas Voeckler kept the overall leader's yellow jersey, still 9 minutes, 35 seconds ahead of the sixth-placed Armstrong.

Armstrong, bidding for a record sixth straight Tour de France title, said a French television crew attempted to get access to his room after he left to race in the 102-mile stage from Saint-Flour to Figeac in central France.

"Just this morning, after we left, a TV crew from France 3 was going to the hotel, the reception, to the owner, asking for our room, trying to get in our room," Armstrong said.

He called such behavior "scandalous" and said he was scared that products could be planted to make him look guilty.

"They show up and they ask sporting questions to our face, but as soon as they leave they're digging in the rooms and looking for dirt," he said. "If you left a B vitamin sitting there, that would get on TV and that would be a scandal. That's what we have to live with every day."

"This particular guy from France 3 has been following us for months and it's scandalous," he said. "The scary thing is, if they don't find anything and get frustrated after a couple of months ... well, who's to say they won't put something there and say 'look what we've found."'

Moncoutie captured his first stage victory in five Tours by breaking away from the pack with two other riders and then leaving them in his wake as he rode alone over the last few miles to the line.

He was the second French rider to win in two days. Richard Virenque won the 10th stage on Wednesday — France's Bastille Day national holiday. Another French rider, Jean-Patrick Nazon, also won a stage in the first week.

"To win a Tour stage is fabulous," said Moncoutie, who comes from the region crossed by today's route. "It was one of my dreams."

Armstrong was in a group that finished 5:58 behind Moncoutie's mark of 3 hours, 54 minutes, 58 seconds. That group also included Armstrong rivals Jan Ullrich, Iban Mayo, Tyler Hamilton and Ivan Basso.

Armstrong and other top favorites are saving themselves for the punishing and probably decisive stages in the Pyrenees and Alps, and did not chase Moncoutie, letting him surge ahead.

Voeckler is expected to lose the lead to the Tour's top riders in the mountain stages, with the first Pyrenean stage Friday

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