CYCLING TOUR DE FRANCE:DANE NICKI Sorensen powered to a solo victory in yesterday's 12th stage of the Tour de France, a 211.5-km ride from Tonnerre to Vittel.

The Saxo Bank rider attacked twice in the finale to beat France’s Laurent Lefevre and Italian Franco Pellizotti, who were second and third respectively 48 seconds behind.

Italy’s Rinaldo Nocentini retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey ahead of Spaniard Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, second and third respectively.

Sorensen featured in a seven-man breakaway at the 64km mark that quickly built a gap of over four minutes, and he proved the strongest of the group.

“I am extremely happy, it is something than I hardly thought of. I was lucky to win this one,” said the 34-year-old Sorensen, one of Andy Schleck’s domestiques on the Tour.

“I don’t get many chances for myself but I got it today.”

Schleck and Cadel Evans also tried their luck early in the stage but they were swiftly reined in by the bunch.

Armstrong suffered a puncture after 150km but the seven-time champion was quickly brought back into the bunch by four team-mates after he had had his rear wheel changed.

The stage went the fugitives’ way as the sprinters’ teams proved unwilling to work in the finale to set up a mass sprint.

Nicolas Roche did a lot of work for Nocentini during the 211.5 kilometres, helping to limit the break’s gains and thus protect the yellow jersey.

Fatigued after that work, Roche didn’t sprint at the end and rolled across the line in 30th place. He drops one place to 51st overall because of the time gained by those in the break, but holds on to his ninth place in the best young rider classification.

The race continues tomorrow with a hilly stage to Colmar, passing through the Vosges Mountains region.

There are some expectations that Nocentini might lose the lead; if so, that could free Roche up to be more aggressive in the final week of the race.

TOUR DETAILS

STAGE 12 (Tonnerre to Vittel, 211.5km)

1 Nicki Sorensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank 4hrs 52mins 24secs, 2 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom at 0.48, 3 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas, 4 Marcus Fothen (Ger) Team Milram, 5 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel Euskadi, 6 Sylvain Calzati (Fra) Agritubel all at same time, 7 Remi Pauriol (Fra) Cofidis Le Credit en Ligne at 1.33, 8 Mark Cavendish (Brit) Team Columbia HTC at 5.58, 9 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team, 10 Marco Bandiera (Ita) Lampre NGC, 11 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Lampre NGC, 12 Steven de Jongh (Ned) Quick Step, 13 Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Skil-Shimano, 14 Nikolai Troussov (Rus) Team Katusha, 15 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Astana all at same time. Other: 30 Nicolas Roche(Ire) AG2R at 5.58.

General classification12: 1 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 48hrs 27mins 21secs, 2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana at 0.6, 3 Lance Armstrong (US) Astana at 0.8, 4 Levi Leipheimer (US) Astana at 0.39, 5 Bradley Wiggins (Brit) Garmin Slipstream at 0.46, 6 Andreas Kloden (Ger) Astana at 0.54, 7 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia HTC at 1.00, 8 Christian Vande Velde (US) Garmin Slipstream at 1.24, 9 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank at 1.49, 10 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas at 1.54, 11 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at 2.16, 12 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia HTC at 2.21, 13 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank at 2.25, 14 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas at 2.40, 15 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale at 2.45. Other: 51 Nicolas Roche (Ire)AG2R at 16.45.

Sprinters:1. Mark Cavendish (Brit) Columbia 200 pts, 2. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo 190, 3. Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 116.

King of the Mountains:1. Egoi Martinez (Spa) Euskaltel 88 pts, 2. Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 71, 3. Christophe Kern (Fra) Cofidis 59, 4. Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 49, 5. Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bbox Bouygues 49.

Youth:1. Tony Martin (Ger) Columbia 48hrs 28mins 21secs, 2. Andy Schleck (Lux) Saxo Bank +49, 3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas +54. Other: 9. Nicolas Roche (Ire)AG2R +15:45.