Today's stage: Every Grand Tour (except this year's Giro) has one of these: a 174 km mountain stage with a long flat at the end built for breakaway artists
Who won today's stage? Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-ISD) took a two man sprint over Kristof Vandewalle (QuickStep) after riding in the breakaway all day.
What matters in the GC race? Nothing at all. The peloton largely took the day off, coming home well over 7 minutes behind the breakaway. Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) continues to lead Chris Froome (Team Sky) by 13 seconds
What matters in the other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) showed some fight after his crash injuries and got in the breakaway toady. He took both intermediate sprints and moved back into the points lead over Bauke Mollema (Rabobank).
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – David Moncoutie (Cofidis) retains his lead, but it is much smaller now after Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r La Mondiale) got into the breakaway and took points on most of the climbs. Montaguti is now in striking distance of Moncoutie with just stages to go.
White Jersey (Allround) – This competition often closely follows the order of the GC standings and that's no exception here. Cobo leads. Froome wears the jersey in second. Mollema is third because of his high standing in the points competition.
Biggest surprise: Montaguti was allowed into the break by the Cofidis team. I would have thought Cofidis would chase him down as the only way Moncoutie was going to be losing the King of the Mountains fight was for Montaguti to get in a breakaway and take a bunch of points. That is exactly what happened and there is still a battle to be fought.
Biggest disappointment: Froome's Team Sky didn't try to keep the peloton together to get Froome some bonus seconds at one of the intermediate sprint points. Those points are the only way he will be catching Cobo in the overall standings, so not making the effort to go after them was a mistake.
Other items of note: Tomorrow's stage visits the Basque country of Spain for the first time in over 30 years. Tensions will be high and there is a possibility of protests. Also, Euskatel will work very hard for a stage win given it's their home region... The lack of a finishing time trial really detracts from the race this year. We are three days from the end in a close race that is already pretty much decided barring something insane happening
What is coming tomorrow? The Basque country and the final chance for Froome as the Cat. 2 Alto El Vivero is climbed just 14km from the summit. Remember that in the Tour de France, Andy Schleck lost nearly a minute on a similar descent finish into Gap and earlier in this race, Liquigas-Cannondale had four of the top five finishers and took time on everyone on a similar finish. Should be interesting, especially with desperate Euskatel riders hunting for the home stage win.
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