Andre Greipel finally put one over on his former teammate Mark Cavendish, to take his maiden Tour de France victory on stage 10.
Greipel used Cavendish as his lead out man, in the last few corners, and moved out at just the right time to take the stage by a wheel length. This victory now makes the Omega-Pharma Lotto rider the first German to win stages in all three Grand Tours. Victory is made sweeter when you consider Greipel hasn’t debuted in the tour earlier, because of Cavendish.
Further down the peloton his teammate Philllipe Gilbert could be seen celebrating, for more than one reason. The Belgian was surely happy for his teammate’s victory, but the current green jersey holder will be even happier Greipel stopped Cavendish taking the full points. Gilbert tried to get the full points allocation himself 12 kilometres to the end; he stayed out for a further 8km. David Millar tried to use his time-trialling skills, when he went with 1.5km to go, but he was soon caught.
The day’s proceedings begun with, two bits of, bad news. RadioShack announced Yaroslav Popovych’s withdrawal with a fever, reducing the team to five riders. The first failed dope test of the tour was also announced; Alexander Kolobnev was sacked immediately by his team, after testers found a masking agent in his urine sample.
Carrying on with the theme of this year’s tour, it wasn’t long before there was a crash. This time it took down Fabian Cancellara, Levi Leipheimer and Robert Gesink; none of them suffered major injuries. After around 18km of riding, there were six riders pulling out a gap; five of the breakaway were French and the only non-French was Marco Marcato. Marcato, who rides for Vacansoleil, spent the day protecting his teammate’s lead in the King of the Mountain classification. Johnny Hoogerland still holds on to the polka-dot jersey, despite behind involved in the crash with the television car on stage 9.
The undulating terrain allowed for the breakaway riders to stay away for much of the day, but it was too much for them, and they were caught with less than 10km to go. Jens Voigt and two of the Team Sky riders picked up the pace, which resulted in a few casualties. Tyler Farrar and Alessandro Petacchi were ruled out of the final sprint, when they dropped off the back of the peloton.
Thomas Voeckler still maintains a 1 minute 49 second lead over Luis Leon Sanchez in the GC, while Gilbert holds a 17 point lead over Jose Joaquin Rojas.
Stage 11 will provide a little more respite for the peloton, with only two classified climbs. The flat finish will provide the sprinters with another chance to take some valuable points, but the slight slope before the end could catch a few out.
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