BRIANCON, France - Alexandre Vinokourov's chances of winning the Tour de France are as thin as the stitches holding his battered knees together.

After repeatedly refusing to talk down his hopes since crashing last week, Vinokourov finally seemed to accept his fate after laboring up three massive climbs on Tuesday's ninth stage.

“It was another horrible day for me,” Vinokourov said.

As he finished mumbling those words to a French television channel, Vinokourov wiped tears away.

The 33-year-old Kazakh rider is arguably the toughest on the Tour, and treats pain with contempt. Such a show of emotion was rare and seemed to represent resignation.

He was dropped twice during the 99.1 mile course from the Val d'Isere ski station to Briancon, won by the unheralded Juan Mauricio Soler of Colombia.

Vinokourov had just about stayed in touch with the leaders during Saturday and Sunday's Alpine treks, but the mountains ganged up to torture him third time around.

First was the Iseran pass - 9.3 miles of climbing - followed by the Telegraph - 7.4 miles - and then the Galibier, with its 10.9 miles of even steeper gradient.

Throw in a burning sun, and Vinokourov was well and truly cooked.

“The rise to the top of the Telegraph was already very difficult,” Vinokourov said. “Then in the Galibier I had pains everywhere.”

While he hopes the stitches in his knees finally form a scar, Vinokourov is bleeding time to rivals.

He lost 2 minutes, 42 seconds to Michael Rasmussen and now trails him by 8:05 overall.

Today, the German cycling federation said Patrik Sinkewitz, a T-Mobile team rider who dropped out of the Tour after being injured in a collision with a fan, had tested positive for high levels of testosterone. The test was June 8 - a month before the race began.

T-Mobile, which has enacted some of the toughest anti-doping policies among pro teams, temporarily suspended Sinkewitz. Two German public television stations that had been broadcasting the Tour responded by saying they were dropping their coverage “until further notice.”Winning the Tour is a fading dream for Vinokourov, the leader of the Astana team. Even bettering his best performance of third place in the 2003 Tour seems far off.

By contrast, Rasmussen comfortably held on to the leader's yellow jersey. The Danish rider - odds on to win another King of the Mountains jersey as best climber - has a chance of overall victory.

He leads Alejandro Valverde of Spain by 2 minutes, 35 seconds, and Spain's Iban Mayo by 2:39.

Rasmussen's biggest threat could be Vinokourov's teammate Andreas Kloeden of Germany.

Kloeden seems to have recovered from the hairline fracture to his coccyx that he received Thursday on stage 5, the same day Vinokourov crashed and tore up his knees.

Kloeden rolled in 46 seconds behind Soler, and he is 3:50 back from Rasmussen overall.

Given that Kloeden is a far better time-trialer than Rasmussen - two clock-races are still to come - he is well placed. Kloeden finished second to Lance Armstrong in 2004, and was third last year.

Astana's sporting director Mario Kummer seems closer to making him the team's No. 1 rider instead of Vinokourov.

“When we saw that Vino was asking for the race doctor in the Galibier and that he couldn't follow, Andreas Kloeden stayed alone with the front group,” Kummer said.

That meant he let Kloeden ride for himself, rather than helping Vinokourov.

Soler, meanwhile, became the latest “Who?!!!” to win a stage, after Linus Gerdemann's win Saturday.

The 24-year-old Soler, competing in his first Tour, clocked 4 hours, 14 minutes, 24 seconds. Valverde was second and Cadel Evans of Australia was third, each 38 seconds back.

But the backdrop to stage 9 was another bizarre incident involving the T-Mobile team, when Marcus Burghardt rode into a dog that ambled onto the road with eery timing.

On stage 8, Patrik Sinkewitz smashed into an elderly spectator when riding back to his hotel.

Of the contenders, Australian rider Evans is well set in fourth place.

Evans finally showed some punch by hunting down Discovery Channel duo Alberto Contador and Yaroslav Popovych after they went over the Galibier together in pursuit of Soler.

By chasing alone for nearly 12.4 miles, Evans made a strong statement.

At the finish, he was swamped by television cameras. Barely able to climb off his bike, Evans fell backward onto a fence. When he finally stopped panting and repeating “Oh man!”, he spoke with clarity.

“It's really going according to plan,” Evans said. “I have pretty high standards for myself. I had the legs to go with Contador when he went. For me he was one of the stronger guys, particularly in the steeper climbs.”