Once the flag was dropped today, the peloton sped off and covered 45 km in the first hour. An elite breakaway was established including, Juan Antonio Flecha, Thomas Voeckler, Luis Leon Sanchez, Sandy Casar and Johnny Hoogerland. It was a very experienced breakaway, sharing a total of 39 tours between them. Some classy riders in this group and with the most KOM available in the Tour so far, it was sure to be an exciting day.
The six breakaway riders had little time to watch the wild horses on the Puy Mary, an extinct volcano, and Terpstra found himself in trouble dangling off the back of the category 2 climb. Voeckler jumped to take maximum points over Hoogerland. Sylvain Chavanel, current French National Champion, struggled on the climb and would later finish 175th with the 'autobus' 21 minutes down.
Just before the 2nd climb of the day, the col du pas de peyrol (Le Puy Mary) with about 120 km still to go, Alberto Contador appeared to get purposefully bumped by Vladimir Karpets and caused him to crash into a spectator falling on his right hip. Subsequent mechanical trouble with his bike delayed his rejoing the peloton, with just the team car tailgating him down the back slopes. That little crash may have turned out to be a good thing however, as a horrific crash happened on the way back down. On the high speed descent, a terrible crash took out American David Zabriske (broken wrist), Omega Pharma-Lotto's main GC rider, Van de Broeck (broken collarbone), and Astana's Vinoukorov who fractured his femur and elbow. Causing all to abandon the race.
Later in the stage after the breakaway had been whittled down to five riders, a TV car clipped 'the archer" Juan Antonio Flecha while trying to avoid a tree. The driver's 'unheard of' carelessness, in what Phil Ligget described as disgraceful, caused a spectacular crash. Johnny Hoogerland was flipped and literally flew into a barbed-wire fence in a somersaulting wreck. It was doubly heartbreaking for the man from Holland as he had earned the Polka dot jersey as leader of the King of the Mountains on the road, but it looked like he wouldn't get to experience the reward of his hard work. Hoogerland took the polka dot jersey off the HTC-Highroad's Teejay Van Garderen's back after battling for the KOM points available on the road today. Both Flecha and Hoogerland finished the stage with remarkable toughness.
Voeckler waved the white flag and signaled his breakaway companions to shut it down and wait for Flecha to rejoin them. The gap on the peloton was still around 5 minutes with 32km to go. However, with 20km to go it was clear that Flecha would not rejoin his former breakaway partners and with the time gap closing to 4:45 from a maximum of about 8, it was time for the three riders out front, to get on with it.
The cat and mouse tactics stayed away as the Sanchez, Casar, and Voeckler worked together to bring each other to the bottom of the final climb. Voeckler's priority changed from winning the stage to gaining as much time to take the maillot jaune that made him famous him 2004, saying later "I sacrificed the stage to win it (maillot jaune/yellow jersey). Luis Leon Sanchez jumped with about 500 meters to go to put a gap on his breakaway companions to win the stage.
On the podium, with totally acceptable and understanding lingering, Voeckler, France's favorite son, soaked up the adulation that only a Frenchman can experience at the Tour de France. Magnifique'
Monday July 11th is a rest day for the Tour. Good thing, 'cause I'm exhausted! Check back tomorrow for what might happen in week two of the greatest bike race in the world. Adieu
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