Friday's stage went from Le Mans to Châteauroux: a 215km ride. This was the last flat stage before the riders would enter the Pyrenees on Saturday. The day's intermediate sprint is only 25.5km from the finish, so it may be interesting to see who is willing to fight for it.
Within the first kilometer of the stage, three riders formed a breakaway: Talabardon, Meersman, and Delage. Soon after, Urtasun bridges to them. Their maximum advantage was at 43km into the stage, with a 7’20” lead. Meersman was the best-placed rider, only 3:22 down from the Yellow Jersey, sitting in 56th place.
Although Gilbert is wearing the green jersey today, he says that team orders mean that he will lose his jersey because he is supposed to be helping the better sprinter of the team, Greipel.
With 39km remaining, the is a crash toward the front of the peloton. Donzens of riders went down, big names included. Although he was able to get back on his feet, Wiggins was clutching his left elbow and had to be taken away by ambulance. Horner was also injured in this crash. He did get up and finish, but he was very disoriented as he crossed the finish line, not understanding why he was 12 minutes down.
Intermediate Sprint Results: Delage, Meersman, Talabardon, Urtasun, Cavendish, Rojas, Renshaw, Gilbert, Montfort, Gerdemann, Martin, F. Schleck, Burghardt, Gutierrez, and Cancellara.
Right before the peloton catches up to the breakaway, at about 13km out, the leading men start to attack each other: Meersman goes, but Urtasun follows. Then Meerman tries one more time, but after 206km in the lead, the breakaway is over.
Cavendish won the final sprint, just as he had won his first sprint in his first Tour de France three years ago. Even in the same town.
1 Cavendish
2 Petacchi
3 Greipel
4 Feillu
5 Galimzyanov
6 Bonnet
7 Hushovd
8 Turgot
9 Rojas
10 Hinault
Favorite Pictures of the Day:
Cavendish riding in the peloton
Hushovd and Voeckler talking in the peloton
El Diablo cheering on the riders. This man is here every year in multiple stages.
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