Stage 19: Bonneval - Chartres

The most interesting thing about today’s time trial was the absence of the favourites. With riders like Fabian Cancellara, Tony Martin and Sylvain Chavanel out, we got to see some of the riders who are usually only second-best stepping up to the plate on the second-last stage before the Tour reaches Paris.

A much-reduced field began Stage 19 from Bonneval to Chartres, only 153 men left in the race from the 198 who started in Liège. As always the lanterne rouge left the starting house first, Saur-Sojasun’s Jimmy Engoulvent once again holding the unenviable title. The next 44 riders started one minute apart, 45th-placed Rubén Plaza Molina (Movistar) the first rider to start after a two-minute interval. Argos-Shimano’s Patrick Gretsch claimed the early lead, leading through both time checks at the 14 kilometre and 30.5 kilometre marks to finish in a time of 1h06’41”.

Gretsch continued to lead after American time trial Dave Zabriskie finished, the man known as ‘Captain America’ coming in 44” behind Gretsch to claim second place. The German’s reign wouldn’t last much longer, though. Despite Gretsch having bested the American champion in Zabriskie, Spanish national time trial champion Luis Léon Sánchez posted a time three seconds better than that of Gretsch at the first time check, following this up with a time 16 seconds faster at the second time check. An average speed of 48.6km/h helped Sánchez to finish in the leading time of 1h06’03”.

Sánchez was destined to spend quite some time in the ‘hot seat’ of the time trial’s leading rider, none of those following quite able to dislodge the Spaniard. Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) finished just 12 seconds behind, and Team Sky’s Richie Porte also slotted into third place, just ahead of early leader Gretsch. The big guns were yet to come out to play, though, the day’s fastest times expected from the GC contenders who would be the last out of the blocks.

The final 14 riders of the day began their time trials three minutes apart. Young BMC rocket Tejay van Garderen had all eyes on him as he set out after his unexpected impressive fourth place performance in the Stage 9 time trial. The 23-year-old American was the first to knock Sánchez down to second place at the first time check, but the youngster had started too fast, three places down from Sánchez after 30 kilometres, finally finishing almost three minutes down from the Spaniard.

By this point the big names were out on the course, riders like Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) making one last attempt to move up in the general classification. The weeks of racing seemed to have taken their toll, however, and in the end only two riders mattered – Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, Sky’s deadly duo.

Froome left the starting house first, topping the times at every checkpoint and finally displacing Sánchez from the hot seat by 34 seconds. History was repeating itself; thus far the stage mimicked the earlier time trial in Besancon, and that wasn’t about to change. Following the example set by his teammate, Wiggins became the first rider to pass inside 17’ at the first time check and 37’ at the second. It came as no surprise to anyone that he topped the leaderboard on his arrival in Chartres, 1’16” ahead of Froome in a time of 1h04’13”. The yellow jersey wearer showed the first signs of emotion in this year’s Tour, pumping his fist in the air as his Tour de France victory was assured.

Wiggins remains in the yellow jersey for tomorrow’s stage into Paris, his lead now 3’21” over Froome in the general classification, the stage set for the first British winner of the Tour de France. Thomas Voeckler will keep the King of the Mountains jersey in the absence of any more points in the classification, while Peter Sagan has an unassailable lead in the green jersey competition, regardless of the outcome of the Champs-Élysées sprint. Radioshack has also retained its lead over Sky in the teams classification, while Tejay van Garderen has a secure lead over Thibaut Pinot in the young riders’ classification that doesn’t look to be disturbed on Stage 20. Tomorrow, the final stage of the Tour, will arrive in Paris with a sprint finish. Mark Cavendish will be looking to claim a third victory for Sky, and Matt Goss will be seeking Orica-GreenEDGE’s elusive stage win one last time, while Andre Greipel and Peter Sagan will be hoping to add to their Tour stage totals as well. Whichever way the sprint goes, it’s guaranteed to be one worthy of the occasion of rounding out the 99th Tour de France.

Stage 17: Bagnere-de-Luchon - Peyragudes

Today was what can only be termed an interest day. Perhaps ‘interesting’ is a little mild, but it covers a stage in which there were surprises, no drama, and nothing shocking, but merely interesting. It seems fairly safe to say that the Tour de France is now effectively over, and the days to come nothing more than filler until the race arrives in Paris.

Stage 17 was the final day of mountains for the Tour, traversing the Pyrénées from Bagnère-de-Luchon to Peyragudes. This Tour seems to have been characterised by breakaways, even in the mountains, for the attacks began as soon as the stage did yet again. It wasn’t until the 24 kilometre mark that a group managed to stay away, another large group containing around 20 riders including a few strong riders. The group held a slim lead over the peloton as they approached the top of the first climb for the day, the Category 1 Col du Mente.

Pierre Rolland (Europcar) sprinted away from the group as they approached the col’s King of the Mountain point, but he was chased down and caught by the two rivals for the polka-dot jersey, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Voeckler managing to outsprint the Swede for the 10 points. There was a lot of shuffling of the breakaway on the way down the Col du Mente, which eventually left seven riders with a 40’ advantage over the Sky-led peloton. A counter-attack soon formed, 10 riders sitting 30’ ahead of the peloton and one 1’00” behind the leading seven.

The positions on the road hadn’t changed as the leaders reached the second climb of the day. Voeckler sprinted out from behind Kessiakoff to lead the race over the second category climb around the 55 kilometre mark of the stage. Chasing them over the top were the 10 poursuivants, 40 seconds behind, with the pursuing peloton another 50 seconds behind them. It wasn’t long before the race referees called all the cars out from between the first two groups on the road, their premonition being fulfilled 68 kilometres in, swelling the leading group to 17.

The number of riders made no difference to Voeckler and Kessiakoff, still locked in their silent battle for polka-dot points. Kessiakoff began the sprint for the points on offer atop the Cote des Burs, but Voeckler surprised him from behind and outsprinted him again. The peloton passed over the top a solid 3’00” behind the leaders, but that advantage was down to 2’15” as they approached the intermediate sprint. The breakaway was disinterested in the sprint points, sweeping through without any fuss and cleaning up all the points on offer, leaving the peloton nothing to sprint for when they swept through two minutes later.

The feed zone five kilometres on caused some trouble, World Champion Mark Cavendish and Sky teammate Richie Porte taking a tumble. Neither was seriously hurt and, mechanical troubles solved, both rejoined the race quickly without incident. The race was already beginning the ascent of the hors catégorie Port de Balés, the climb splintering the leading group into a fluid group of two or three riders leading two smaller chases further on down the climb.

Then Rui Costa (Movistar) leapt into a solo ride at the front of the stage, sitting a few hundred metres ahead of the next group on the road. The reason soon became clear: teammate Alejandro Valverde similarly leapt off the front and easily bridged the gap to Costa, leaving his teammate behind when Costa could no longer pace him onwards up the mountain. With a 2’20” lead over the peloton, Valverde scooped up the 25 points at the top of the Port de Balés and began racing the 32 kilometres towards the stage finish.

The peloton continued bearing down on the remainder of the breakaway, slowly picking up riders one by one as the yellow jersey group continued towards Peyragudes. Soon it was just Valverde in his time trial up the front, followed by Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at 2’00” and Costa at 2’18” ahead of the peloton, with only 20 or so kilometres to go in the stage. Costa was the next to go, the peloton sweeping past with riders dropping out the back, unable to keep up with Team Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale’s pacemaking.

One of those soon to go was defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC). The 35-year-old was unable to keep up with the pace in the mountains yesterday due to stomach problems and still seemed to be unwell today, disappearing discreetly to leave young teammate Tejay van Garderen to continue on without him.

An attack from Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) got a response from Bradley Wiggins (Sky), the yellow jersey wearer stepping up the pace so much that the leading group was reduced to just eight riders. Chris Froome (Sky) kept the pace so high that everyone was dropped except for his team leader, the only rider ahead of them on the road being Valverde, one minute ahead with three kilometres to go. Froome seemed to be feeling in excellent form, because he appeared to be wanting to leave Wiggins and chase down Valverde for the stage win. Whether Wiggins denied permission or Froome decided against it, the two Britons finished the stage together, just 19 seconds behind the Spaniard.

Stage 18 is a medium mountains stage, with a few Category 4 climbs breaking up the flats. This could be a stage for a breakaway (think Albasini, Scarponi and even Pinot or Rolland) or it could equally be pulled in by Lotto Belisol to allow for another Greipel-Sagan showdown.

Stage 16: Pau - Bagneres-de-Luchon

The Col d’Aspin, the Col d’Aubisque, the Col du Tourmalet. The grandes dames of the Tour de France; the elder statesmen of the hills as Eddy Merckx is of the riders. Today was the day for the riders to pay their respects to the peaks that have shaped the Tour de France, and one or two chose to respect the peaks with a mountain race that left those watching wanting to stand and applaud in awe.

Stage 16 from Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon was always going to be interesting, being one of the high Pyrénéan stages of this year’s Tour – and the Pyrenees, as anyone who watches the Tour regularly knows, are always exciting. The stage began with a move that was more unusual than exciting – after 20 kilometres of trying, the day’s breakaway was established, 38 riders being considerably more than are usually allowed in a breakaway. Despite the presence of several very strong riders, there was clearly no-one in the group high enough on the general classification to concern the peloton, and the break was allowed to leave the bunch.

The breakaway had a lead of 3’45” as they began the climb of the Col d’Aubisque around the 40 kilometre mark. While polka-dot jersey wearer Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) was in the break, it was Thomas Voeckler’s Europcar teammate, Yukiya Arashiro, who led out Voeckler over the climb to take the maximum 25 points available, helping the Frenchman encroach on Kessiakoff’s lead. Sky was leading the peloton as the main group passed over the climb, BMC Racing Team moving forward as they reached the top.

A crash in the peloton that sent two riders flying into barbed wire on the descent ended badly for one of them. Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) reduced the number of riders in the Tour to just 154 after abandoning the race with a broken collarbone, courtesy of the fence. Up ahead, the blissfully unaware breakaway was passing through the feed zone, preparing for the start of the Tourmalet, the highest pass of the Pyrénées. As the gradient started going up, though, the size of the breakaway began going down as riders fell off the back of the escape now being strongly led by Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD). With an extra push by Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) the breakaway began to reduce further, shattering on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet.

Of the 38 riders who began the stage in the lead, only two could follow Martin when he attacked again: one being eternal favourite Voeckler and the other being Brice Feillu (Soar-Sojasun), who spent much of the past two weeks off the back of the peloton with illness. The two caught and passed Martin on the climb and continued on, launching themselves into the stage lead. As Martin continued trying to chase down the pair, a group of poursuivants was forming further down from the remnants of the breakaway that Martin had shattered not long before.

The leading duo having reached the top of the Tourmalet, Voeckler took another 25 points to bolster his second place in the King of the Mountains classification as they continued racing along the stage, the two Frenchman co-operating to maintain their lead. Behind them, Sky was still leading the peloton, Christian Knees now responsible for inflicting the pain as he hauled the bunch up the Tourmalet much faster than many would have liked. Between the leaders and the main group were the chasing groups, several pairs or small collections of riders from the old breakaway bearing down on Voeckler and Feillu in the lead, 10’25” ahead of the peloton.

It really was chaos on the road as the Pyrénées continued to inflict their damage on the riders, some dropping back and some surging forward between the myriad tiny groups of riders chasing down the lead. The riders were inflicting the damage too, three Liquigas-Cannondale riders coming forward to dramatically increase the tempo of the peloton and shelling off a lot of riders in the process. The results were maybe not what they’d expected, Cadel Evans (BMC) disappearing from yet another mountain stage as he fell off the peloton. The other major contenders reached the top of the Col d’Aspin with a 45” advantage on Evans, but after some sterling riding from his team, Evans reappeared in the main peloton on the way down the far side of the Aspin, avoiding losing more time to his rivals.

Now on the final climb of the day, the Category 1 Col du Peyresoude, Voeckler managed to drop his breakmate Feillu and continued on ahead alone, Feillu soon being passed by the distinctive bobbing motion of Chris Anker Sorenson (Saobank-Tinkoff Bank). Voeckler was riding with his usual persistent style, however, claiming more mountain points as he topped the Col de Peyresoude, a minute ahead of the chasing Sorenson.

But back in the peloton drama was afoot, as Evans looked to be in trouble again while Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) attacked the yellow jersey group. Chris Froome (Sky) was once again responsible for bridging the gap to Bradley Wiggins (Sky), leaving the three top-ranked riders in the Tour de France on their own behind the various breakaways. Nibali was dissatisfied with his first attempt and attacked again, trying to gain some time on the yellow jersey, but the British duo bridged the gap once again, the trio still together as they crested the Col du Peyresoude.

Out in the lead, Voeckler was in the final five kilometres of the stage with almost a two minute lead over Sorenson. The stage win was inevitable for the former 2011 yellow jersey wearer, Voeckler’s arms going over his head in the classic victory salute. Sorenson rolled in just over a minute and a half behind him, Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Feillu rounding out the top five over a five-minute period.

It was the first major shake-up in the GC, Evans out of the overall top five long before he crossed the line, instead dropping into seventh place at eight minutes down behind sixth-placed teammate Tejay van Garderen. Tomorrow is the final mountain stage of the Tour, as well as being a mountaintop finish, so look out for Nibali to attack again, Voeckler to defend his newfound mountains lead as well as other opportune breakaways looking for their own stage win.

Stage 11: Albertville - La Toussuire-Les Sybelles

Today was the day.  This was the stage we’d all been waiting for, the decider, the bike race to end all bike races.  It happened.  And it was spectacular – spectacularly destructive, spectacularly revealing, spectacularly tenacious.   Stage 11 reminded that this is the Tour de France, of whom only the greatest are worthy, and today we finally learnt who the worthy riders are.

It panned out almost exactly the same as the day before.  Today’s stage began with a large breakaway that formed almost as soon as the riders left the neutral zone.  The 30 or so riders moved fluidly between several breakaway groups ahead of the peloton for the first hour or more, being dropped, catching or attacking in turn.   As the group reached the top of the first climb of the day, the hors catégorie Col de la Madeleine, the 26 riders were 2’55” ahead of the Team Sky-led peloton.

Due to the pace being set by Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen, riders were dropping off the back of the peloton as the climbed the Madeleine.  Behind Boasson Hagen, four more Sky riders were waiting in line to do the pace-making, willing to lay everything on the line for their team leader, Bradley Wiggins.  Boasson Hagen’s high tempo had cut nearly a minute off the breakaway’s lead, before Christophe Kern (Europcar) took over the pace-making from teammate Davide Malacarne and began stepping up the speed of the escape group.

The King of the Mountain point was passed without incident by the breakaway, Astana’s Fredrik Kessiakoff leaping forward for second place in an attempt to regain his polka-dot jersey.  Kessiakoff continued over the top of the climb to attack the breakaway on the descent with Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), one of two groups to do so, splintering the breakaway into three.  The first two groups rejoined in time for the intermediate sprint at Saint-Etienne-de-Cuines, uncontested due to the lack of sprinters, Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) leading the second group across the line.

As the leading group began the second HC climb of the day, the Col de la Croix de Fer, the second group on the road bridged gap, forming a 22-man leading group again.  The group soon began dropping riders, as the third rider of the day dropped out of the Tour de France.  Rabobank sprinter Mark Renshaw joined Vacansoleil-DCMs Lieuwe Westra and Gustav Larsson on the list of riders withdrawn from the Tour’s 11th stage.  Riders continued to yoyo on and off the back of the breakaway as Kern continued the pace-making up front and Sky set the tempo further down.

The expected attack came partway up the Col de la Croix de Fer.  Sky made no reaction as the wearer of the best young rider’s white jersey, Tejay van Garderen, disappeared up the climb.  The reason for van Garderen’s attack was soon evident: a few minutes later, BMC team leader Cadel Evans attacked as well, racing ahead to join his young teammate.  The leading Sky rider, Australian Michael Rogers, began increasing the tempo of the peloton even more in an attempt to bridge the gap to Evans, who was by then sitting comfortably on the wheel of Tejay van Garderen.  He didn’t look comfortable for long, however, van Garderen’s accelerations dropping his team leader off his wheel far too easily.  Even with the assistance of Amael Moinard, dropping back from the breakaway, it was too much for Evans, and the Skymobile came forward to swallow all three back up again.

Thanks to Sky’s accelerations, the groupe Maillot Jaune had been reduced to just 10 riders; team leaders and the best climbers.  There were just seven men in the lead group just over two minutes ahead as the crossed the top of the Croix de Fer, led by Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar).  The riders began attacking each other on the way down, but it was Rolland again who led them over the third and final climb of the day before they reached the mountaintop finish.  A group of three formed at the head of the race as Rolland, Kiserlovski and Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) began descending the Col de Mollard.  The glory was shortlived, however, Rolland crashing on the descent.  Bleeding from his elbow but otherwise unhurt, Rolland was able to remount and try to chase down the leading pair a few seconds ahead of him, catching them 23 kilometres from the end of the stage.

Back together in the lead, Rolland attacked his breakmates, trying to set himself up for a solo stage win.  There were attacks back in the main field, too,  Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) among the four riders who jumped of the front of the peloton.  Forced to chase, Sky super-domestique Chris Froome began setting a pace that dropped all bar a few riders.  Fortunately for Wiggins, one of the dropped riders was Cadel Evans, who had teammate Tejay van Garderen thoroughly confused with his inability to keep up.  Van Garderen also dropped back to pace Evans over the climb, the pair unable to rejoin the yellow jersey group and crossing the line over three minutes behind the winner of the stage.

Froome and Wiggins, meanwhile, had dropped everyone else and were forging ahead to join the breakaway of van den Broeck and Nibali just up the road.  Having managed this, Froome then went to the head of the group and accelerated so hard that Wiggins dropped off the back.  Froome was quickly instructed to stop pace-making and go back to help Wiggins, stranded behind the group of four.  Picking up Kiryienka along the way, the reformed group of seven continued their high pace towards the stage finish on La Toussuire.

But they weren’t the only ones out there.  Pierre Rolland, with a minute over his nearest pursuers, repeated his feat of last year soloed to a mountaintop stage victory, the day after the stage win of his team leader, Thomas Voeckler.  The French fans were in for a bigger surprise, because young FDJ-Bigmat star Thibaut Pinot managed to outsprint Froome to take second to make it a French 1-2, Wiggins rolling across the line two seconds later, one and a half minutes ahead of Evans.

Stage 12 is a medium mountains stage, with two Category 1 climbs close to the start and a long flat towards the finish.  This is the kind of stage that encourages breakaways, and would definitely suit the skills of a rider like Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) or maybe even Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD).  It’s unlikely to see the big GC contenders try anything one a stage with such a flat finish, but being the Tour de France, anything could happen.

Stage 9: Arc-et-Senans – Besançon (ITT)

A time trial usually provides some good variety in the middle of a three-week race.  In this race, though, a time trial becomes a battleground, a chance for one or other of the favourites to stamp their authority on the yellow jersey. That’s exactly what it became, the 41 kilometre 9th stage from Arc-et-Senans to Besançon turning into a huge game of tug-o’-war as the world’s best time triallists tugged on the advantage of the maillot jaune.

The early starters provided no real surprise, Vacansoleil’s Lieuwe Westra holding the early lead before it was claimed by World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep).  The German had another jinxed run, a flat tyre ending his chances at a stage win, but still managing to top the leaderboard in a time of 53’40”.  Martin’s reign lasted until the ride of four-time former World Time Trial Champion Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), who ousted his younger successor with a time 1’19” faster.

The locals of the département of Doubs were providing the entertainment of the day with several Nazca Lines-style patterns carved into the fields surrounding the race.  A particularly elaborate one featured one of the renowned local clocks as the rear wheel of a time trial bike complete with rider, massive in comparison to the pro cyclists passing along the road beneath.  It wasn’t until the final two and a half hours of racing that things really got exciting; the better time triallists hitting the course in the final 30 riders.  Riders like Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) and Denis Menchov (Katusha) lived up to their reputations, putting in top 10 performances, while Radioshack’s riders filled in the gaps, with six riders in the top 20.

The real surprise of the day came from Cadel Evans’ young American teammate, Tejay van Garderen (BMC), who caused a stir when he raced through the first time check three seconds ahead of Cancellara.  The 23-year-old was still going strong at the second time check, two seconds ahead of the dominant Swiss, and managed to maintain enough of a lead to cross the line just eight seconds behind ‘Spartacus’ and reclaim his white jersey from Cofidis’ Rein Taaramae.

Naturally it was the last few riders of the day who generated the most interest, the focus on the battle for yellow raging between Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Cadel Evans (BMC).  Evans had more to worry about than just the Briton in the yellow jersey, with Wiggins’ Sky teammate Chris Froome posting a 23-second best time at the first time check.   Evans was unable to keep up, falling outside of the top 10 at the 16 kilometre mark, but he found his rhythm in the second third of the race and placed 6^th at the 31 kilometre time check.

It wasn’t going to be enough, though, Froome second at each time check and Wiggins dominating in 1^st place, over a minute ahead of the Tour de France defending champion.  Not only was Evans sacrificing precious seconds in the race for yellow, but Froome was now jeopardising Evans’  hold on second place as well.  Though Evans managed to reach Besançon just 1’08” behind Froome, Wiggins was showing why he’s known as a specialist in the discipline, storming over the line in a stage-winning 51’24”, solidifying his lead on yellow.

The GC has been turned upside down yet again as the time triallists are catapulted up the ranking, Wiggins still leading the classification ahead of Evans at 1’53” and Froome at 2’07”.  Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Denis Menchov round out the top 5.  Tomorrow is a rest day before the race heads into the mountains again, so watch the top 5 riders as well as riders like Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Team Radioshack-Nissan-Trek.  Cadel Evans in particular needs to make up time on Wiggins, so Stage 10 could be where we see if the Australian can seriously defend his title.

Stage 7: Tomblaine – La Planche des Belles Filles

There is a saying amongst the riders when the race enters the mountains – ‘The Tour begins today’.  That it certainly did, Stage 7 providing the first serious mountain climbing challenge and giving us a good idea of who will be seriously competitive in this year’s Tour de France.

It was another beautiful day in northern France, the gentle sunshine belying the carnage of the day before as the peloton rolled along from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles.  The crashes certainly took their toll, a further eight riders failing to start the day’s stage in addition to the four who withdraw during the race yesterday.  A 13^th rider, Saur-Sojasun’s Anthony Delaplace, withdrew early on in the stage after being unable to continue with a broken wrist.

With the much-reduced peloton racing along at the fastest opening speed of this year’s Tour de France, going 44km/h, the race was nearly 20 kilometres in before the day’s breakaway was formed, the biggest of the Tour so far.  Seven different teams were represented in the nine-man escape group, Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale), Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), Martin Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank).  As we’ve come to expect, the septet raced away to build themselves a lead of up to six minutes by the 35 kilometre mark.

BMC Racing Team and Katusha Team were leading the peloton through the stunning mountain countryside of forests and lakes as the bunch approached the intermediate sprint, passed by the breakaway nearly five minutes hence with Albasini in the lead.  Orica-GreenEDGE put together their sprint train and raced away from the peloton, Peter Sagan sitting on Matt Goss’s wheel.  Unfortunately for the Australian team, Goss suffered mechanical trouble as Sagan began to sprint for the line, leaving Sagan to take eighth place along before waiting several minutes for the peloton to catch up after his huge acceleration.

BMC continued to lead the peloton as the breakaway began heading up through the mountains.  Luis Léon Sanchez had some problems with fans getting too close as they headed up the hills, appealing to the commissaires to intervene, to no avail.  Chris Anker Sorenson, teammate of points classification leader Michael Morkov, claimed the King of the Mountain points available on the first climbs to protect the Dane’s lead as the peloton began making their mountains as well.  It wasn’t long before the peloton began shedding riders; sprinters and those injured in crashes the first to go.  BMC, Team Sky and Garmin-Sharp were taking turns leading the peloton at an ever-increasing pace, trying to haul back the breakaway and set up the peloton for a stage win all in one go.

The first objective was achieved sooner than the second, but it still took a while to break the spirit of the breakaway.  As the peloton continued fracturing and some of the big names like Jurgen van den Broeck of Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Alejandro Valverde from Movistar punctured, the breakaway riders began attacking again, Fofonov and Albasini trying to escape their less mountain-inclined companions. The final climb finished off the peloton’s job, though, the seven escapees unable to cope with the high gradient of the final climb.

Riders continued going off the back as the peloton went up, some of the key GC contenders and notable climbers being the next to go.  Soon enough the ‘peloton’ was reduced to 10 or 15 riders who were able to keep up with the tempo that Sky were stamping out over the final few kilometres.  One by one the Sky riders emptied their tanks and trailed off the back, leaving both Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome alone with Cadel Evans and a handful of others, including Liquigas-Cannondale’s Vincenzo Nibali and Cofidis’s Rein Taaramae.  Froome continued to put the pressure on the leaders until the final kilometre, when Cadel Evans jumped out from behind Wiggins’s wheel and began leading towards the finish.  Wiggins was doing all he could to stay on Evans’s wheel as the Australian raced away towards the finish, allowing Froome to power up alongside him and leave both Wiggins and Evans in the dust to take the stage win.  Fabian Cancellara came over the line a little more than a minute later, putting Wiggins in yellow for Stage 8 with Cadel in second place on the general classification, just 10 seconds behind him.

Tomorrow is a lumpy stage with one Category 4, one Category 3, four Category 2s and a Category 1 climb leading into a downhill finish.  This is a perfect stage for a breakaway to stay the distance and take the stage, but with so many riders injured, the move may well come from Team Astana, which has the most uninjured climbers.  Simon Gerrans from Orica-GreenEDGE and Nicki Sorenson from Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank are other possibilities for mountain breakaways that can hold out against the peloton.  It will also be worth watching Team Sky to see how they go defending Bradley Wiggins and the yellow jersey.