Stage Ten

As the race moved further into the big mountains it was nice not to see a three-man breakaway held at six minutes in front of the peloton.

Pau to Hautacam 156km

As the race moved further into the big mountains it was nice not to see a three-man breakaway held at six minutes in front of the peloton. There was an attack around the 100km to go mark, but this time it had big names Fabian Cancellara and green jersey holder Oscar Freire (Rabobank). But the time difference here only sat around a minute until the 80km mark where the seven riders were allowed to blow out to three minutes.

Thor Husovd saw the danger and moved off the peloton to bridge the gap and challenge Oscar Freire at the second and last sprint for the day. It would have been a difficult move to ride one against seven, especially as the sprint was at the bottom of the Tourmalet. Unfortunately for Thor, his attempt was doomed to fail and Freire collected both lots of sprint points on offer.

But then, would you believe it, the peloton allowed the break to get out to 9:26 as they took a break before the slopes of the Tourmalet. As soon as they hit the slopes, Saunier Duval-Scott attacked and you guessed it, Ricardo Ricco was the man. He wasn’t allowed to go alone today and he was followed by the front of the peloton who reeled him back.

Saunier Duval-Scott kept attacking, getting reeled back and attacking again on the early slopes of the Tourmalet in an attempt to break up the race. Caisse d’Epargne joined every move so that they were always in a position to help Valverde.

Frenchman Remy Di Gregorio (Française des Jeux ) was the only member of the seven man breakaway to stay in front on the steep slopes. He was able to hold an eight minute lead from the peloton for quite some time as no team was coming to the front to set the pace. Finally though, Team CSC began to up the pace with Jens Voight on the front pushing through a large number of Australian flags.

The pace began to split the pack as four CSC men worked on the front. Haimar Zubeldia (Euskatel-Euskadi), Cyryl Dessel (AG2R), Schumacher and Zabel all dropping off the back. Surprisingly, also was Yaroslav Popovych (Silence-Lotto) who was supposed to be up the front with Evans. This was the first indication that Silence-Lotto may have spent unwisely.

Di Gregorio held a 7:45 lead by the time he hit the town of La Mongie. He must have been inspired by Bastille Day to hold the peloton away for so long and was rewarded by being the first rider over the Tourmalet. Cancellara led the second group and behind them, the GC contenders. CSC were doing a fine job of dislodging team mates from Evans, Kirchen and Menchov so that their leader, Carlos Sastre, could be in a position to attack them on the slopes of Hautacam.

Damiano Cunego was the first of the favourites to crack, followed by Allesandro Valverde, as Jens Voight drove a furious pace on the front. Jens spent the entire length of the Tourmalet on the front, driving and driving and dropping riders one by one. Going over the summit, the peloton were now six minutes behind Di Gregorio.

CSC continued to maintain the pace along the valley floor before the final climb to Hautacam. They had caught the remainder of the original breakaway apart from Di Gregorio. Fabien Cancellara was next in that group so he sat up and began also to drive the bunch. Cunego and Valverde had to play catch up 45 seconds behind.

The peloton sped along putting time into Di Gregorio and also the Valverde/Cunego group. At the base of the final climb to Hautacam the heads of state were nearly two minutes in front of those two riders and only 40 seconds behind the brave Di Gregorio.

Amazingly, Jens Voight led the group up the hill and the riders immediately began to crack. Cancellara went off but still Voight kept pounding the pedals. Finally Jens pulled off the front and Frank Schleck took over. This move dropped Kim Kirchen the yellow jersey wearer, putting Cadel Evans into the position of race leader virtual.

Sastre jumped away to be followed by Evans and Menchov. Schleck counter attacked and Evans was very slow to react. As was Menchov. This meant Christian Vande Velde took a chance to put himself in yellow. If Vande Velde finished 38 seconds ahead of Evans he would be in front at the end of the stage. If Frank Schleck finished two minutes ahead, he would wear the yellow.

But Evans didn’t panic. In his typical style, he rode at his own pace, marking Menchov and Sastre. But then the gap to the lead riders became too big and Evans was forced to attack. He made the move and began to chase. Menchov and Sastre followed right behind.

Back up the front of the race, Saunier Duval-Scott rider Juan Jose Cobo jumped away from Frank Schleck and his team mate Leonardo Peipoli. But Peipoli pushed ahead and pulled away from Schleck who by this time had moved into race lead. Evans was limiting damages by riding on the front of the favourite’s group. With a weak team, Evans may have felt it wouldn’t be the best idea to get into yellow this early in the race.

Cobo and Peipoli attacked Schleck again two and a half kilometres from the summit. The road was lined with Basques and they would have been disappointed to see Valverde lose so much time. With a kilometre and a half to go Evans was up out of the saddle and sprinting. Menchov was helping but none of the other riders would move forward.

Leonardo Peipoli won the stage in front of Cobo, but Schleck put in a big effort for third. All eyes were watching Evans and also Christian Vande Velde to see what time they came in and who would be in the yellow jersey. Kim Kirchen had well and truly lost it off his back and as he came over the line the news came through that Cadel Evans was in the yellow jersey, just one second ahead of Schleck. One tiny second. Would Evans attempt to keep yellow or would he be more comfortable to lose it and try to win it back in the final time trial?

“Yesterday was terrible,” said Evans. “I suffered a lot. My entire left side is damaged, my helmet was destroyed. I thought my Tour was over. Now, I only think of the general classification.

“Just like the others I hoped for yellow at Hautacam,” he continued. “To get it by a few seconds is great, but there are still many kilometres left.”

Frank Schleck rued the one second difference. “One second is not a lot. Maybe a turn that I could have taken differently... But I did a great stage today. It is not over yet!”

Results