2012 Tour de France Stage 17, 7/19/12

I'm back from vacation and slacking...

Sorry for not keeping up with the blog. I'm not going to post all the stages I missed, but i will try to post from here on out:

July 19, Stage 17: Bagnères-de-Luchon - Peyragudes 143.5km

Valverde lays claim to final mountain stage

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-17/results)

Alejandro Valverde salvaged the 2012 Tour de France for himself and his Movistar squad as the Spaniard soloed to victory on stage 17, the final day in the high mountains. Valverde, part of the day's early escape, rode the final 35km of the Pyrenean stage from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Peyragudes alone, having dispatched of his breakaway companions for good on the hors categorie-rated ascent of the Port de Bales.

Sky's Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome once again asserted their dominance, dropping their general classification rivals on the mountain finish to Peyragudes to cross the line together just 19 seconds in arrears of Valverde. In the final kilometre, as the Sky duo had dropped the remains of a very select group formed on the climb to the finish, it appeared that Froome had the legs to bridge to Valverde, but Wiggins' super domestique backed off the throttle to pace Wiggins to the finish line.

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat) crossed the finish for fourth three seconds later while Pierre Rolland (Europcar) pipped Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) for fifth at 26 seconds.

Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) arrived alone in seventh place, 18 seconds behind the Sky duo of Froome and Wiggins, on a stage which must have proved bitterly disappointing for the Sicilian. Starting the day third on general classification behind the Sky pair, Nibali had his team on the front of the peloton for most of the stage in an attempt to crack Wiggins and Sky. In the stage finale, however, the Sicilian did not have the legs to even launch an attack on the climb to Peyragudes as he found himself in the final selection of Wiggins, Froome, Pinot, Rolland, Van den Broeck, Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Chris Horner (RadioShack-Nissan).

Wiggins remains first on general classification, continuing to lead his teammate Froome by 2:05. Nibali keeps his third place position, but ceded some time on the final day in the mountains to trail Wiggins by 2:41. Jurgen Van den Broeck maintains his fourth place position overall, at 5:53, while BMC teammates Tejay van Garderen and Cadel Evans each move up a position to fifth and sixth respectively as Haimar Zubeldia(RadioShack-Nissan) cracked in the stage's endgame and dropped from fifth to eighth at 10:11.

Last chance for the climbers

At just 143.5km in length, the shortest and last stage in the Tour's high mountains provided a tantalizing medium for several Tour sub-plots to perhaps find resolution. With a 53.5km individual time trial on Saturday, Nibali's final chance to put time into Wiggins and Froome, both more talented against the clock, would be today.

The mountains classification was still very much up for grabs between Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), ensconced in polka dots after sweeping all four KOMs en route to stage victory yesterday, and Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), who lost the jersey the previous day but trailed the Frenchman by just four points, 107 to 103. As a maximum of 65 points were up for grabs on the day's five classified climbs, the polka dot jersey could still change hands.

And finally, only eight different teams had scored stage wins thus far in the Tour, and many squads with talented climbers yet to leave their mark on this year's La Grande Boucle were itching for a chance to deliver a stage victory on the last day of climbing.

Attacks were launched from the gun as the peloton sped out of Bagnères-de-Luchon, but nothing stuck until the peloton arrived at the lower slopes of the day's first ascent, the category 1 Col de Menté.

A fairly large group went out on the attack with riders such as Denis Menchov (Katusha), Movistar's Juan Jose Cobo and Alejandro Valverde, Europcar's Pierre Rolland and Thomas Voeckler, Chris Horner
(RadioShack-Nissan) and Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) prominent in the mix on the mist-shrouded ascent.

The battle for the mountains classification picked up where it left off yesterday as Voeckler and Kessiakoff locked horns again. Voeckler's teammate Rolland was alone in the lead near the climb's summit, but waited for his team captain after Kessiakoff dropped Voeckler. With Rolland's help, Voeckler reached Kessiakoff in time to take maximum points atop the Menté, with Kessiakoff taking second.

On a wet and dangerous descent, conditions almost as treacherous as those which spelled Luis Ocana's doom in the 1971 Tour de France, Vincenzo Nibali took advantage of his descending prowess to bridge the gap from the maillot jaune group to the break. Sky remained vigilant, however, and closed the gap to within 20 seconds, prompting Nibali to sit up and be caught while the break could once again stretch its advantage.

Seven riders emerged at the head of affairs after the descent of the Col de Menté including Voeckler, Kessiakoff, Movistar's Alejandro Valverde and Rui Costa, Sandy Casar (FDJ-BigMat), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale).

Additionally, an 11-man chase group had escaped from the peloton in pursuit of the leaders. On the attack in this selection were Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM), Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), Gorka Izaguirre and Jorge Azana (both Euskaltel-Euskadi), Pieter Weening (Orica GreenEdge), Ruben Plaza (Movistar), Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Simone Stortoni (Lampre-ISD) and Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank).

On the summit of the next climb, the category 1 Col de Ares at 55.5km, Voeckler once again edged Kessiakoff for top honours, extending his lead on the KOM standings to eight points, 122 to 114.

After another tricky descent the chase group finally made contact with the seven leaders, albeit without one member, Chris Anker Sorensen, who suffered an injury to several fingers as he tried to extract a newspaper from his front wheel at the top of the descent. Sorensen received treatment from the Tour doctor and returned to the peloton.

Liquigas-Cannondale continued to set the pace in the peloton and kept the break's lead pegged at approximately 2:30 as Voeckler once again beat Kessiakoff to the stage's next KOM, the category 3 Côte de Burs with 67.5km remaining.

Port de Bales looms

With the monster ascent of stage 17 looming, the hors categorie Port de Bales, the Euskaltel duo of Azana and Izaguirre attacked the break and were joined by Kadri on the wooded, false flat valley road leading to the base of the climb. The three Movistar riders tapped out a steady tempo for the remainder of the escapees while the Liquigas-led peloton continued to trail at 2:30.

Once the leaders began to ascend the Port de Bales whatever cohesion remaining in the group remained was shattered as the better climbers pushed the pace. At the front Izaguirre and Kadri dropped Azana while four riders emerged from the chase group: Valverde, Costa, Leipheimer and Martinez. The quartet would catch Izaguirre and Kadri with 8.5km of climbing remaining to the summit and almost immediately Costa surged ahead alone in the lead.

Five kilometres from the summit, Costa still climbed alone in the lead while the first chase group was trimmed to contain just Valverde, Martinez and Leipheimer, who at 15 seconds back had the Portuguese rider in sight. Further down the slope Voeckler was glued to Kessiakoff's wheel, the duo one minute behind Costa, while Liquigas-Cannondale's tempo had reduced the yellow jersey group to approximately 30 riders.

Soon Valverde made his move with a sharp surge that immediately distanced Martinez and Leipheimer. The Spaniard crossed the gap to his Movistar teammate Rui Costa with ease and after sharing the pace for several hundred metres Valverde's pace proved too much for Costa as well.

Once Valverde ascended through the tree line the mist enshrouding the climb disappeared as he kept a steady rhythm through the exposed switchbacks approaching the Port de Bales summit. Valverde took maximum points at the top, followed by Costa and Martinez. Kadri and Leipheimer crossed together in fourth and fifth, while Voeckler once again outsprinted Kessiakoff at a KOM for the fourth time today as the pair rode topped the hors categorie climb in sixth and seventh place respectively.

The select maillot jaune group was led over the KOM by Jurgen Van den Broeck, who accelerated in the approach to the summit, and still trailing Valverde by more than two minutes.

After another treacherous, Pyrenean descent the race had now arrived at the final kick to the finish, first ascending the Col de Peyresourde on the side they descended the previous day, followed by a turn onto the climb of the Peyragudes for the stage finish.

With Liquigas-Cannondale still setting the tempo in the maillot jaune group, one-by-one the escapees were absorbed and dropped on the Peyresourde until only Valverde remained off the front. At 10.5km to go Valverde still held a lead of 2:20, but the strain of his day's effort began to creep into his pedal stroke while behind the yellow jersey group's tempo increased significantly as attacks started to occur.

After cresting the Peyresourde and enjoying a bit of recovery on a short descent, Valverde began his climb to the finish at Peyragudes with a lead reduced to 1:15 ahead of a 14-rider group containing the general classification contenders. The maillot jaune group was led by Liquigas-Cannondale's Ivan Basso and Vincenzo Nibali, with the Sicilian still not showing any sign of aggression since his initial dig in the early portion of the stage.

Indeed it would be Lotto Belisol who would commence attacking on the final climb, as Jelle Vanendert sped up the road soon to be joined by teammate Jurgen Van den Broeck. A re-shuffling took place culminating with eight riders climbing together in pursuit of Valverde: Wiggins, Froome, Nibali, Van den Broeck, Pinot, Rolland, Horner and van Garderen.

Wiggins had a word with Froome and soon Froome upped the tempo enough to drop everyone but his teammate in the yellow jersey. Soon, however, even Wiggins couldn't handle the pace as they drove into the final kilometre, rapidly closing the gap to Valverde who was clinging to hopes of a stage win with all his might. Froome waited for his captain, however, and while they may have lost the opportunity for another Sky stage win, they crossed the finish line together 19 seconds behind the Spanish stage winner and ahead of their general classification rivals yet again. As was the case to the finish in La Toussuire, however, the question remained as to who amongst the Sky duo was indeed the strongest.

Full Results

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team	4:12:11
2	Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling	0:00:19
3	Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling
4	Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat	0:00:22
5	Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar	0:00:26
6	Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
7	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale	0:00:37
8	Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team	0:00:54
9	Christopher Horner (USA) RadioShack-Nissan	0:01:02
10	Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin - Sharp	0:01:11

After a 17 month drought...

Nibali back to winning ways in Oman

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-oman-2012/stage-5/results)

Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) took his first win in almost seventeen months after punching his way clear at the foot of the climb to Jabal Al Akhdhar on stage 5 of the Tour of Oman.

On the sharp slopes of Green Mountain, he succeeded in staving off the dogged pursuit of Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), but the Slovak did manage to limit his losses sufficiently to gain control of the overall lead, one second clear of Nibali.“I didn’t want to look around once on the climb,” Nibali admitted after crossing the finish line.

“A year without wins wasn’t easy to take. My performances in that time show that I was giving it my all, but without a win I couldn’t say I was totally satisfied.”

The haul to Green Mountain was always going to prove decisive, but the real selection was expected to be made on the final 13.5% ramps near the summit. Instead, Nibali threw the cat amongst the pigeons by attacking twice at the foot of the climb.

The first move tested the waters, then the second opened the floodgates. While Velits and the French trio of Sandy Casar, Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ-BigMat) and Tony Gallopin (RadioShack-Nissan) treaded water, overnight favourites such as Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Jakob Fuglsang (RadioShack-Nissan) were among those left floundering.

“I knew that in the middle section of the climb it became a little easier, so I tried like that,” he explained afterwards. “Velits followed me first, and then I went again, this time alone.”

Velits proved to be a resilient chaser, however, and he stalked Nibali all the way up the climb. As the road sneaked its way around the mountainside, he could see Nibali flitting in and out of view all the way, but to his frustration, the gap between them would never diminish, and Nibali crossed the line victorious.

On the final kick to the finish, Velits realised that while the stage victory was beyond him, he might just be able to do enough to deny Nibali the overall lead. “I knew I couldn’t go too early, as I would have lost even more seconds. So I waited as long as possible and then went with 150 metres to go,” he said.

Velits duly reached the finish 12 seconds down on Nibali, and when the time bonuses were tallied, that was sufficient to keep him one second clear ahead of Sunday’s final stage to Matrah Corniche.

 A slow start

 A block headwind on the road out of Muscat on Saturday morning meant that the peloton was happy to stay together for much of the slow-burning build-up to Green Mountain. Only a brief six-man break headlined by Bernhard Eisel (Sky) and Oscar Gatto (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) broke the calm as the Katusha patrolled the front of the bunch in the service of Rodriguez.

On the 5.7km-long final climb, Nibali was instantly dancing from side to side, looking to land the early blows. His first exploratory jab came almost as soon as the road pitched upwards, and it was a presage of what was to come – the alert Velits was promptly on his wheel, while the rest of the contenders slowly edged their way back towards him.

With 4km to go, Nibali put in his next dig, and only in hindsight did anyone realise that it was in fact the knock-out punch. His steady acceleration took him decisively clear of the hesitant lead group, and sensing his opportunity, he put his head down all the way to the top.

Velits admitted afterwards that he regretted not trying to shut down Nibali’s second attack immediately. “It was not a really hard attack, he just went a little bit faster, but nobody reacted,” he said. “I didn’t react and maybe I underestimated him a little bit, but he got the gap and he held it to the finish.”

Sandy Casar was of a similar opinion, although he was expecting Tom Jelte Slagter (Rabobank) to be more active in the defence of his red jersey chances. “I thought that others like Slagter would go after him first, but in the end he was a bit switched off and went too late,” Casar said afterwards.

The steepest section of the climb came in the final kilometre and a half, but by the time the leaders had reached this section, they were already eking their way up in ones and twos, the constant changes in rhythm making it impossible to form any cohesive chasing groups.

Among those to suffer was Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), who ultimately crossed the line in 7th place, 55 seconds down. Given that his Katusha team had been so active on the front of the peloton early on, it was a disappointing day for the Spaniard.

“I didn’t feel good, I just didn’t have good sensations on the climb, but even so, my rivals weren’t too far ahead,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t expect Nibali to go so early, at the time I thought it was a mistake, but he was the strongest.”

Casar came home third, 25 seconds down, while his young teammate Jeannesson held off the surprising Tony Gallopin for fourth. Gallopin’s efforts were enough to move him up to third overall.

After the finish, Nibali admitted that it would be difficult to overhaul Velits on the final stage, even with two intermediate sprints up for grabs. For his part, the new red jersey knows that he will have to be attentive to ensure he continues Omega Pharma-QuickStep’s run of stage race success this year.

“There are two sprints and my lead is only one second so anything can happen,” Velits warned. “It’s still going to be quite tight, but we have big strong guys on the team and hopefully we’ll be able to manage it.”

For now, Nibali seems content simply to have secured his first victory since the 2010 Vuelta a España. Of course, he didn’t win a stage during that Spanish campaign, and he explained that the last time he had raised his arms in triumph was at the Trofeo Melinda that August. It had been a long time coming.

“A win is always beautiful and crossing the line first is something you can’t explain,” Nibali said. “It’s like in football for a striker who hasn’t scored for a long time; when he does, it’s a bit of a liberation.”

2011 Tour de France, Stage 17

Today’s stage is 179km and runs from Gap to Pinerolo; yes, the Tour de France will head into Italy today.

Within the firs 10km, a 10-man break has formed: Gerdermann, Thomas, Hagen, Di Gregorio, Sanchez ,  Costa, Casar, Hondo, Van Garderen, De Gendt. Hushovd and Roche tried to attack the peloton to bridge a gap to the breakaway sitting at about 40” ahead, but the peloton wouldn’t let them go. However, with 139km remaining the group was brought back.

With 119km left, a new attack group has formed, and they quickly have 1’30” on the peloton: Hagen, Perez, Tjallingii, Fofonov, Muravyev, Amador, Paterski, Chavanel, El Fares, Casar, Bozic, Leukmans, Hivert, and Mollema. By the beginning of the first climb, the lead was 4’30”.

Tiralongo has abandoned the race.

At the summit, Chavanel take the most KOM points, followed by El Fares. Caser takes the lead over the intermediate sprint line. At the second climb Chavanel got 2 points while Leukmans got 1.

With 88km remaining, the lead grew to 7’15”.

Chavanel takes maximum points at the 3rd summit.

82km from the finish, Hoogerland, Roche, and De Weert attack the peloton and try to chase down the breakaway. De Weert is doing the most work and is able to cut the gap to the leaders in half within minutes.

Perez attacked the breakaway with 4km to go until the summit. He hit the summit solo, and Chavanel brought the rest of the leaders over the line. With 31km remaining, Perez has an 8’10” gap over the peloton.

The peloton drops a lot of riders on this final climb, including Farrar and Cavendish.

Perez is caught on the ascent, and Chavanel attacks. Hagen catches up to him and then attacks. The leaders catch up to Chavanel, and he attacks again to no avail. Then Hivert attacks. Hagen has a 25 second lead with 10km to go. Chavanel goes again and then Mollema while Contador attacks the peloton.

A. Schleck, Voeckler, and Evans follow Contador and soon they are all back together.

Contador attacks again, followed by A. Schleck and Evans. Then F. Schleck attacks and is followed by Contador and others.

Hivert crashes on the descent, but is able to get back up and chase.

Basso sets the pace for the rest of the acsent and A. Schleck leads the CG contenders down. Hivert again crashes, this time into a parked car. Again, he is okay.

Voeckler attacks, but almost misses a corner. Contador attacks and is clear. Voeckler ends up crashing into the same parked car as Hivert in another missed corner. The GC contenders finish together though, but it is Hagen who takes the win!

 Stage 17 Results:
1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling 4:18:00
2 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:40
3 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJ 0:00:50
4 Julien El Fares (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne 0:00:50
5 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quickstep Cycling Team 0:00:50
6 Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Pro Team Astana 0:01:10
7 Maciej Paterski (Pol) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:01:10
8 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Team RadioShack 0:01:10
9 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Saur - Sojasun 0:01:15

2011 Tour de France, Stage 14

Stage 14 runs 168km, from Saint-Gaudens to Plateau de Beille. Today's stage has 6 categorized climbs, including a HC finish.

Interesting Fact of the Day: This is the 5th time a stage has finished at Plateau de Beille, and the stage winner has always gone on to win the tour. Will that be the case this year?
Almost instantly Chavanel attacks and soon Voigt and Millar are going clear as well. Then there were 19 riders trying to reach Chavanel as well as others back in the peloton trying to bridge the gap. They were able to catch Chavanel, as well as other chasers who had a chance to catch the lead group. So the breakaway became: El Fares, Millar, Casar, Voigt, L. Sanchez, Izagirre, Mollema, Koren, Chavanel, Di Gregorio, Riblon, Bouet, Vichot, Gerdemann, Charteau, Quinziato, Silin, Matcato, Delage, Malori, Perez, Pineau, Zandio, and Costa. Some big names, and a lot of familiar names. The best place attacker is Casar at 21, sitting 8'47" back from Yellow.

At the summit of the first climb, Delage took the most KOM points and Mollema took second. Delage also crossed the sprint line first taking points there as well. The second summit of the day also belonged to Delage. Cavendish is off the back of the peloton having difficulty making it up the second mountain, however on the descent he caught back up.

Millar, Casar, and El Fares have upped the pace in the breakaway and soon are the leading trio. With 87km to go, they lead the peloton by 7 minutes. With 75km remaining that lead jumped another two minutes as other breakaway members are either trying to reach the trio or are being dropped on the acsent. As Leopard-Trek takes over the control of the peloton, Roy is being dropped off the back. Hushovd is also being dropped.

At the third summit of the say, this time it is Casar who takes it. On the descent, Riblon catches the trio, however, soon Millar is dropped on the ascent of the 4th climb. Silin passes Millar on his way to the new trio in the lead. As Silin gets close, the rest of the chasers are making their way back up as well. There are now 10 riders up front: El Fares, Silin, Riblon, Casar, Di Gregorio, Millar, Voigt, Charteau, Zandio, and Izagirre.

The 4th climb of the day goes to Chavanel, who just eclipsed Charteau right before the line.

There was a crash on the 4th descent. Ten Dam went down pretty hard, but he got back up and continued on.

Right away there is a category 3 ascent for the 5th climb and Izagirre takes it.

Voigt crashed on this descent, but he too was able to get back up. He crashed again a few minutes later when his wheel locked up. He is able to make his way back to his team who is leading the peloton down the mountain. Izagirre is leading with about a minute on the chasing group. L Sanchez attacked the chasing group but no one responds to help him. Then Millar tries. This is the issue with big groups; they can't work well together.

On the final climb of the day Leopard-Trek continues to keep it at a fast pace. Riders are dropping off the back, including Hincapie, Gesink, and Martin. With 13km left of the stage, most of the riders from the original breakaway had been caught with Casar still ahead. BMC is helping Leopard-Trek pace, and soon there are 20 or so riders left in the peloton.

A. Schelck attacks and Contador follows. Evans, Basso, Cunego, F. Schleck and Voeckler respond. Danielson has been gapped. A. Schelck attacks again and this time Vanenert is with him. S. Sanchez, Basso, Cunego, and Uran follow. He goes again and Evans bridges to him. This is a 12 rider group, and with 8km remaining, Casar has less than a minute lead.

With 6km left, Casar has 20 seconds but Vanenert attacks an surges past Casar. A. Schelck keep attacking his group, but he can't get anywhere. With 5km left, Vanenert has 18". Its Basso who is setting the pace, but Voeckler stays on his wheel. In the flatter section, S. Sanchez attacks and is in the middle of Vanenert and the chasers.

Basso creates a gap, and Evans, Voeckler, and Peraud bridge, but they are caught before the end. Vanenert wins the stage with S. Sanchez second.

Stage 14 Results:
1 Vanendert
2 S Sanchez
3 A Schleck
4 Evans
5 Uran
6 Contador
7 Voeckler
8 F Schleck
9 Peraud
10 Rolland

Tour de France, Stage 9

Today's stage was from Issoire to Saint-Flour for a total of 208km:

Again, to save time, I am just going to copy the summary from cyclingnews.com. I will be back with my summary on Tuesday for the 10th stage. Since tomorrow is a rest day, I will do a normal blog on a topic I have yet to decide, but it will have a Tour de France theme. 

Thomas Voeckler takes yellow

Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) claimed victory on a dramatic day of racing that saw Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) move into the yellow jersey and crashes wreak havoc in the peloton. On a tough uphill finish in Saint-Flour, Sánchez had too much in the tank for his French breakaway companions Voeckler and Sandy Casar (FDJ) and powered clear to take the third Tour stage win of his career.

Although well beaten by the Spaniard in the sprint, Voeckler received considerable consolation in the shape of the maillot jaune, which he took for the first time since 2004. "The last time I wore it, it was said they let me take the yellow jersey. But this time I went out looking for it," said Voeckler. "I made a clear choice. I sacrificed the stage to win it."

A race that has been packed with drama so far continued in the same vein almost from the start in Issoire. An early crash that resulted in Euskaltel-Euskadi's Amets Txurruka and Vacansoleil-DCM's Wout Poels quitting the race was, unfortunately, merely the prelude to two other serious incidents.

As the bunch descended the second climb of the day, the Pas de Peyrol, a number of riders went down, both on the road and into the ditch and woods on the right-hand side of it. The most seriously affected were Omega Pharma-Lotto GC leader Jurgen Van den Broeck and teammate Fredrik Willems, who both broke a collar bone, Astana leader Alexandre Vinokourov, who broke an elbow and his femur, and Garmin-Cervélo's Dave Zabriskie, who broke a wrist. All were forced to abandon, although Zabriskie did briefly attempt to continue.

Zabriskie's Garmin-Cervélo teammate David Millar was riding with race leader Thor Hushovd, and both just managed to avoid the crash, as Millar explained to ITV at the finish. "That crash was horrific. We were coming down the high-speed descent and there was a corner that kept tightening. The guy in front of Zabriskie just made it around, but Dave clipped the barriers and went flying over the edge. The Lotto guy who was on his wheel hit the barrier and stopped dead but was spinning on the floor. I just squeezed through. Thor jumped over the bike and just made it by and it all went piling down behind us. It was one of the scariest crashes I've seen. It was carnage."

More controversial was a crash in the breakaway group of five just 36km from the finish. As the riders sped down a descent, a car from French TV attempted to pass them going partly down the grass verge on the left-hand side of the road. The car driver swerved back into the road and the riders to avoid a roadside tree, hitting Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha and sending him cartwheeling down the road. The Spaniard clipped Vacansoleil-DCM's Johnny Hoogerland, who was sent somersaulting onto a barbed wire fence on the other side of the road.

Thankfully, both riders were able to continue, although both were bloodied, Hoogerland suffering what appeared to be deep wounds to his lower legs. The Dutchman received some compensation at the finish in the shape of the King of the Mountains jersey, having led over four of the day's eight categorised climbs.

"We can be happy that we're alive. It's horrible," said Hoogerland. "I can blame everyone but I don't think anyone does this sort of thing on purpose. I think the people in the car will have a very big guilty feeling and they will surely apologize to me and Flecha...I have three cuts that are about seven centimetres long and quite deep too. I'll go to the hospital now and I think I'll need about 30 stitches at least.

"I did what felt like a few somersaults. I don't know where the car came from. Before I knew it, Flecha was on the ground and there was nothing I could do. I landed on the fence and I looked at my legs and thought, ‘Is this what cycling is about?' I have the polka-dot jersey but I'm going to spend the rest day in a lot of pain."

The green jersey stayed firmly on the shoulders of Philippe Gilbert, who once again stormed clear on the main group to claim fourth place on the line, although he admitted he was disappointed not to have been in contention for the stage win.

"We had a bad day because we lost VDB and Willems, and we were hoping to win the stage today. Because of the big crash we had to stop [chasing], then Garmin didn't want to ride, then they did, then they stopped again. The atmosphere was very bad after the crash. I told my teammates that if we were in contention for the win today I would take it easily because I was very strong, and I'm disappointed because of the situation of the crashes and the situation of the race."

How it unfolded
Although numerous riders attempted to break the shackles of the fast-moving peloton in the first hour, no one managed to get a significant advantage until the summit of the first climb of the day, the 3rd-category Côte de Massiac. Voeckler led over the summit, followed by former KoM leader Hoogerland. This pair pressed on over the climb and were joined by Sky's Flecha, FDJ's Casar, Rabobank's Luis León Sánchez and Quick Step's Niki Terpstra.

Voeckler and Hoogerland's duel for mountains points continued over the 2nd-category Pas de Peyrol, where the Frenchman beat the Dutchman. This pair and their three breakaway companions were already heading towards the third climb of the day, the 2nd-category Col du Perthus, with a lead of around three-and-a-half minutes when the day's biggest crash halted much of the peloton on the descent of the Pas de Peyrol.

Most of the field was held up as riders tried to pick their way past stricken colleagues. A gaggle of Astana riders headed into the foliage below the right-hand side of the road to aid team leader Vinokourov. The Kazakh was eventually lifted off his bike and back up to the road, but was unable to continue. Van den Broeck, Willems and Zabriskie were also forced out, and several others went down heavily too, including RadioShack leader Andreas Klöden, although the German did manage to continue.

A truce is called
After some brief discussion, a truce was called at the front of the peloton to allow those riders who had either crashed or been held up to get back up to the group. The drop in pace resulted in the break's lead ballooning out to almost eight minutes as Hoogerland led Voeckler over the fourth of the day's eight categorised climbs, the 3rd-category Col de Cère.

Little more than a minute down on yellow jersey Hushovd, Voeckler realised that the overall lead was now a serious possibility and allowed Hoogerland to take the next couple of climbs unchallenged in return for a degree of cooperation in between the summits. When the Dutchman led the leading quintet over the 2nd-category Prat de Bouc, he guaranteed himself the polka dot jersey at the end of the stage and would almost certainly have contended for the stage win if not for the intervention of France TV's car.

After remounting following extensive treatment, Hoogerland was caught by the bunch just before the day's intermediate sprint, where Gilbert took fifth place uncontested to extend his lead in the points competition. Garmin-Cervélo were by now working hard to defend Hushovd's yellow jersey. But inside the final 20km they realised his lead was gone and they let BMC and eventually Leopard Trek take over the pace-setting.

At the front of the race, Casar and Sánchez were happy to let Voeckler do the lion's share of the work heading into the finish. The Europcar team leader led the way until well inside the final kilometre, as his two companions rode side by side, eyeing each other. So intent were Casar and Sánchez on each other that Voeckler was able to drop back behind them on the 1.3km climb up to the finish, and it was he who made the first acceleration from 300m out.

Sánchez responded immediately, surging clear of Voeckler as Casar offered no challenge. Crossing the line, the Spaniard first sucked his thumb and then gave a sign to indicate his wife's pregnancy as he claimed Spain's first stage win of this year's race. The grimacing Voeckler came in five seconds later with the crowd roaring their approval.

Although he will probably not hold the maillot jaune for the 10 days he kept it in 2004, the Frenchman will be hard to shake from the race lead, especially after such a brutal first week that has taken a toll on the whole field. They will all be glad of tomorrow's first rest day.