Today's stage: The annual breakaway descent stage in the Pyrenees. This year it climbed the Col d'Aubisque 40 km from the finish and then went almost all downhill from there.
Who won the stage? World Road Race Champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo) attacked his breakaway companions early on the Aubisque climb, was dropped by counter attacks from Jeremy Roy (FDJ) and David Moncoutie (Cofidis) then recovered and chased down both Moncoutie and Roy on the long descent finally passing Roy with 2 km to go.
What matters in the GC race? Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) still leads the overall race though he is expected to surrender that tomorrow at Plateau de Beille. A little further down, Philippe Gilbert (Omega-Pharma Lotto) attacked on the descent looking for green jersey points and rode himself up into the top 10 overall. All the main GC contenders pretty much rested today not attacking at all on the Aubisque.
What matters in the other competitions?
Green Jersey (best sprinter): No changes here with Mark Cavendish (HTC-High Road), JJ Rojas (Movistar) and Gilbert leading the race. All picked up points at various places on the stage today.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains): Roy's attack did not net him his sorely desired stage win, but he did pick up the lead in this competition over yesterday's stage winner Sammy Sanchez (Euskatel) and Jelle Vanendert (Omega-Pharma Lotto). And I am thankful for this too as red and white polka dots mixed with Euskatel orange was a blinding uniform debacle today.
White Jersey (best young rider): Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ) retained his white jersey over Rein Taaramae (Cofidis). Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) lost a large chunk of time today not recovering well from his breakaway attempt yesterday and ending his chances in this competition.
Biggest surprise: Hushovd no question. The guy is a sprinter. Sprinters usually don't get any leeway in breakaways in part because if they survive they are automatic to win and in part because they usually don't try on mountain stages. It was amazing to see him attack on the slopes of the Aubisque and it was evident that if he caught Roy he was going to win easily.
Biggest disappointment: No GC contenders had a go on the Aubisque. I understand why nobody went, but I don't have to be happy about it. All the favorites were conserving energy for tomorrow's punishing mountain killer of a stage and the Aubisque was a bit too far from the finish for any meaningful gaps to form
Other items of note: Four more riders abandoned the race today. Notable among them Andreas Kloden (Radioshack), leaving his team with just five riders remaining. Also with five remaining is the Katusha team after Vladimir Isaichev left the race. Also abandoning the race were Lars Boom (Rabobank) and Gert Steegmans (Quick Step)
What is coming tomorrow? Much suffering and pain is coming tomorrow. Six categorized climbs come tomorrow with a cat 3, two cat 2's, two cat 1's and the finish atop the beyond category Plateau de Beille. Of note historically is that all four previous winners atop Plateau de Beille have gone on to overall victory in Paris (Pantani in 1998, Armstrong in 2002 and 2004, Contador in 2007).
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