We've certainly hit the rhythm of the Tour de France now, but no stage on the Tour is ever boring. Certainly not today, and we're beginning to see the form of some of the riders and guess who among them is likely to be on the podium in Paris.
Another breakaway today, this time leaping off the front 9 kilometres into the race. Jeremy Roy from FDJ was in it again today, along with four other riders from teams without strong GC contenders. BMC clearly favoured this stage for Cadel Evans, so they took on over 50% of the pace-making, with Omega Pharma-Lotto picking up the slack to pave the way for Phillipe Gilbert to take another stage victory.
As they reached the intermediate sprint, Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) began to pedal and pulled away from the other four, who were obviously uninterested in sprint points. Hoogerland took the first 20 points uncontested, the next four sets of points going to the other members of the breakaway. When the peloton arrived, Movistar and Garmin began setting up their trains, but it was Tyler Farrar, who won yesterday's stage in memory of late friend Wouter Weylandt, who nipped ahead to pick up the next allotment of 10 points on offer. Green jersey wearer J.J. Rojas (Movistar) came in behind him and picked up enough points to keep his green jersey.
Omega Pharma-Lotto kept the pace up, dangling the breakaway at only two or three minutes for the next few hours, ready to reel them in for Gilbert to take the stage. Then the peloton split unexpectedly, leaving Liquigas's Ivan Basso as well as BMC's Cadel Evans trapped at the back of the rear peloton. The two halves of the peloton quickly joined, but Cadel's day didn't improve quite as fast. After the 'natural break' that left him behind, he had not one but two mechanical problems - first a puncture, then an issue with the new bike after the puncture - that kept taking him to the team car at the back of the peloton. But even then Madame Misfortune still plagued him. As he tried to rejoin the peloton after having his bike checked, a photographer fell off the motorbike right in front of him. A team assistant raced up to guide Cadel around and give him a push, while teammates Amael Moinard and Michael Schar waited to take him back to the front of the peloton. They did their jobs admirably in the final 20 kilometres, and Cadel soon found himself in the front 30 riders with teammate George Hincapie, as well as the Team Leopard Trek riders surrounding Frank and Andy Schleck and the Omega Pharma-Lotto team still leading for Phillipe Gilbert.
The breakaway riders tried valiantly to hang on until the very end, and did themselves proud, finally allowing themselves to be caught at the four kilometre-mark, much later than anyone predicted. This meant that there was minimal time for the usual posturing and positioning that happens at the end of the stage. Of course, that's not to say there wasn't still posturing. By the time the breakaway was caught, George Hincapie was already at the front of the peloton pedalling for all he was worth, setting the pace high to make it hard for the riders, giving Cadel the best chance of staying at the front and avoiding trouble.
At around 1.5 kilometres to go, Contador attacked and led a small group of 10 riders off the front of the main peloton. He fought his way up the climb, leading the likes of Evans, Frank Schleck, Rigoberto Uran Uran (Team Sky) and even yellow jersey-wearer Thor Hushovd up the Mur-de-Bretagne, the Wall of Brittany. Others including Omega Pharma-Lotto's GC rider Jurgen van den Broeck took turns pace-making, while speculation began to fly regarding Contador's racing form, suggesting that he isn't at his peak like last year and that Contador is a bit off-colour in this Tour.
Nearly 10 seconds ahead of the peloton, Contador attacked again at 500 metres to go, and Cadel followed, passing him on the final flat as he sprinted for the finish. Contador, resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to make up any time on his rivals with his attack, rallied himself and chased after Cadel, passing him on the line and creating confusion as to who had actually won the stage. A photo finish quickly showed that Cadel had won by a quarter of a wheel, giving BMC's GC rider a well-deserved stage victory and also the polka-dot jersey, having won the two King of the Mountain points on offer at the end of the stage. He narrowly avoided taking the yellow jersey from Thor Hushovd, who finished in the sprint group just behind Cadel and Contador, thus maintaining his one-second lead over the Aussie. In all likelihood Hushovd will keep the maillot jaune until Saturday, when the Tour heads into the mountains. Cadel simply has to stay out of trouble until then - but will Contador do the same?
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