Today's stage: The first high mountain stage had three big climbs headlined by the Col du Tourmalet and a summit finish at Luz-Ardiden.
Who won the stage? Samuel Sanchez (Euskatel) won his first career stage to go with his fourth overall last year and his Olympic gold medal in the road race in Beijing. Sanchez had been targeting this stage all along as it is close to his Euskatel team's Basque homeland and base.
What matters in the GC race? As expected, the race changed greatly. Surprisingly though, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) stayed with the leaders and retained the race lead. Former second place Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) was dropped on the Tourmalet, never to be seen on the stage again. Frank Schleck (Leopard-Trek) attacked in the final kilometers and passed Cadel Evans (BMC) for second overall. Also, defending champion Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Sungard) was dropped by the final accelerations and lost more time to his rivals. The new GC standings read Voeckler, F. Schleck, Evans, A. Schleck (Leopard-Trek), Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Contador and Sanchez.
What matters in the other competitions?
Green Jersey (best sprinter): Mark Cavendish (HTC-High Road) took the intermediate sprint before the climbs and extended his lead over JJ Rojas (Movistar) and Philippe Gilbert (Omega-Pharma Lotto)
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains): Sammy Sanchez took advantage of the double points for the summit finish to take the Polka Dot jersey. Former leader Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) attempted to attack early on but was unable to do anything and fell out the back. Jelle Vanendert (Omega-Pharma Lotto) is now second while Jeremy Roy (FDJ) and Frank Schleck are now tied for third.
White Jersey (best young rider): Former leader Robert Gesink (Rabobank) was dropped early, obviously not in great form after his crashes last week and his injuries. The new leader is Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ) riding his first Tour. Jeannesson is 12th overall.
Biggest surprise: Other than Voeckler keeping his jersey, the big surprise was Vanendert riding to second place behind Sanchez. Most (me included) had never heard of Vanendert as he was supposed to be a domestique for Jurgen Van den Broeck who crashed out Sunday in the Vinokourov crash.
Biggest disappointment: Rabobank imploded. Robert Gesink was leading the white jersey competition and was expected to challenge for a podium place. Luis Leon Sanchez was second overall entering the day though not much was expected from him. Both had awful days today with Gesink now over 20 minutes behind. The highest placed rider for the team is Laurens Ten Dam who finished 18th on the stage today but was already 14 minutes behind. This has been a disaster other than Sanchez' stage 9 win for this team.
Other items of note: There was another crash today with Andreas Kloden (Radioshack) going down again to continue the Radioshack nightmare tour...It would appear Geraint Thomas' Team Sky bosses made a mistake keeping him back when Bradley Wiggins crashed out of the race. Had they let Thomas go, he would be 2nd in the white jersey race and in the top 15 over all instead of being ovr 4 minutes down to Jeannesson and in 25th.
What is coming tomorrow? Another mountain stage in the Pyrenees, but it is the annual descent stage. The peloton will climb the Col du Aubisque, but there is plenty of descending time to make up gaps going over the mountain. Expect the breakaway to win this stage without question tomorrow while Voeckler keeps the yellow for one more day, even if he is dropped on the Aubisque.
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