To say it was a day of drama would be an understatement. Scandals, sportsmanship and surprises barely touches on the 191 kilometre stage from Limoux to Foix through the Pyrénées mountains. As always, the Tour de France provided entertainment, sport and a compelling story to rival all others.
Despite being classified as a high mountains stage, with two Category 1 climbs in the latter part of the stage, the attacks began from the get-go, several riders trying to break clear of the peloton and establish a lead. Unsurprisingly, it was boy wonder Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) who was the successful rider, finding himself ahead of the peloton in the company of Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) and Sergio Paulinho (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) after attacking on the descent of Category 2 climb Col du Portel. The trio took advantage of the chaos on the descent as the peloton split in two with a gap of almost a minute in between. Even though the two main groups were maintaining a high average speed, Sagan’s group was slowly edging away from the nearest leaders, second by second.
Seeing that this break appeared to be succeeding, already having lasted longer and stronger than previous attempts, eight riders jumped off the front of the peloton in an attempt to join them. The strong riders in the group helped bridge the gap to the three riders leading the stage, now 1’12” ahead of the pursuing peloton. The lead ballooned out over the next 20 kilometres or so, the break building up an astonishing gap of 11 minutes as they approached the intermediate sprint.
The only real sprinter in the group, Sagan wasn’t expecting competition from the other breakaway members for the 20 points on offer at the intermediate. Just to be on the safe side, Sagan sat on the front of the breakaway as they approached the sprint point of Tarasçon-Sur-Ariège, nervously checking behind him for any sign of a response. Obviously Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) has a sense of humour, because the Basque rider decided to indulge Sagan’s paranoia, feinting to the right in the last few hundred metres as though to attack. The Spaniard was only in jest, though, and Sagan claimed his precious 20 points uncontested.
The breakaway’s lead had gone out to almost 15 minutes as they began the first of the two Category 1 climbs for the day, the Port de Lers. The weather began to deteriorate towards the top of the climb, riders calling for rain jackets to protect against the incoming mist and cold. Cyril Gautier (Europcar), who had been part of the day’s breakaway, had a puncture which forced him out of the group and left him chasing the dectet all the way down the far side of the Port de Lers and up the subsequent Mur de Péguère, finally catching them early on the climb.
While Sky tapped out the pace as the peloton ascended the Port de Lers, 16 minutes ahead on the Mur, Luis Léon Sánchez (Rabobank) was taking his turn at the pace-making. The Spaniard was forcing a few riders off the back of the breakaway with his tempo, which was aimed at dropping Slovakian sprinter Peter Sagan, who would be able to beat the rest of the breakaway in a sprint finish. The tactic failed to work, Sagan one of only four riders to join Sánchez in the leading group of the stage. The 22-year-old sprinted ahead to follow Sandy Casar (FDJ-Bigmat) and Gorka Izaguirre over the final climb of the day.
Behind them in the peloton, chaos was reigning as the main group of riders passed over the preceding climb. What was later identified as a collection of tacks scattered over the road was causing punctures in the tyres of all the top GC contenders, many of whom were stranded far from their team cars when the punctures occurred. The incident first came to light when defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC) was seen standing at the King of the Mountains point atop the Port de Lers with a punctured back tyre. The 35-year-old barely maintained his calm as he waited for his team car to make its way through the grupetto to change his tyre. Swapping with a passing teammate, he began chasing down the group of yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins (Sky) which was now almost a minute ahead. Evans’ day didn’t get any better, having to stop for two more tyre changes in the next 10 minutes.
Evans wasn’t the only rider affected. Around 20 other riders were also forced to change tyres, Wiggins opting to change his whole bike after he punctured. The worst off was Astana’s Robert Kiserlovski, whose puncture caused him to crash on the descent and abandon the Tour with a suspected broken collarbone.
It didn’t get better. Though Wiggins had called a truce in the yellow jersey group, waiting for Evans to catch up before they continued racing, Team Europcar’s Pierre Rolland appeared not to be aware of the situation behind and attack the groupe maillot jaune, building up almost a two minute lead. Though Wiggins clearly still wanted to wait for Evans, who was falling further behind with each wheel change despite BMC Racing Team pacing him back towards the lead, the teams of Lotto Belisol and Liquigas-Cannondale made the decision to start chasing down Rolland. The young Frenchman was high enough in the GC to start challenging the positions of their riders in the top 10. Rolland caught, the pace slackened off again for Evans to catch up, the atmosphere in the group clearly souring towards the impudent Rolland.
Meanwhile in the breakaway, Sánchez had decided it was time to be rid of Sagan in the interests of the stage win and began a solo break with 11 kilometres left in the stage. The two-time defending Spanish time trial champion caught Sagan on a snack break and managed to put a gap between himself and his fellow escapees, which only expanded over the next few minutes. The three-time Tour stage winner managed to hold off the pursuing four to take a stage victory which has been the only ray of light for a team battered by misfortune at this year’s Tour. Sagan led the rest of the breakaway to the finish three-quarters of a minute later, the main body of riders rolling over the line 18’15” after Sánchez, leaving the overall standings unchanged.
Tomorrow’s stage from Samatan to Pau is fairly straightforward and flat, only a couple of small categorised climbs to contend with. It should be a stage for the sprinters like André Greipel, Peter Sagan, Matt Goss and Mark Cavendish – that is, assuming the saboteurs from today’s stage have no ill-advised plans for a repeat performance.
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