Le Tour - Stage 10

Well as might have been expected as the first day after the Alps, today's stage didn't see a whole lot of action and in the end a break was allowed to slip away and take the stage. Of course the heat also put a damper on the peloton wanting to do more than keep the break on a shortish leash (about 10 min it looked like for most of the day).

I do love that not one of the riders I selected made it into the break. Once the break whittled itself down to the five who would contend for the win I was hoping that Jens Voigt could do it, but it as the stage wound down it seemed that unless he was bluffing Cedric Vasseur was a prime candidate for the win. He kept his pulls down to a minimum and let the others (mainly Voigt) where themselves out before a nice move in the sprint to take the win (the third of the tour for my boys in Quickstep).

There were no changes to the overall with Rasmussen staying in yellow, and it looks like Boonen made sure to come in ahead of Zabel and Hushovd for some of the points that remained on the stage so he maintained the lead in the green jersey as well.

Tomorrow is a VERY flat stage so my money is on Robbie Hunter to finally pull one off and matcher Soler in getting a stage win. Of course I would like to see Tornado Tom pull off another win, and Zabel will be hungry for the stage as well. It should be an exciting finish

General classification after stage 10
1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 49.23.48
2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 2.35
3 Iban Mayo Diez (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir 2.39
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 2.41
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.08
6 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 3.18
7 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 3.39
8 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 3.50
9 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.53
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team 5.06


Points classification
1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic 160 pts
2 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram 144
3 Robert Hunter (RSA) Barloworld 114
4 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 110
5 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux 108