Stage 10

The road

At the start

Bastille Day, and a break's day

The Madeleine gave Andy Schleck the maillot jaune and Cadel Evans a very long ride home; Contador is second at 41 seconds and Samuel Sánchez third at 2:45. Today is 179 kilometres to Gap on Bastille Day, over the Rampe de Laffrey — in the Tour since 1905 — and the Col du Noyer, then down the Rochette descent where Beloki fell in 2003. Nothing here for the favourites, everything for an escape.

How it was won

1. 1110 km to go

   Eight forty at the top of Laffrey

   It is Bastille Day, there are two Frenchmen in the break, and over the Rampe de Laffrey the peloton has 8:40 on them and no interest at all in changing that.

2. 241 km to go

   Bouet, dropped and back

   On the Col du Noyer, thirty-five kilometres out, Maxime Bouet cracks a kilometre and a half from the summit — and then buries himself over the top to rejoin the five in front of him. Behind, the gap has passed eleven minutes.

3. 313 km to go

   Paulinho and Kiryienka slip away

   Aerts has attacked and Devenyns has countered, and with thirteen kilometres left Sérgio Paulinho goes with Vasil Kiryienka on his wheel. The two of them have half a minute inside two kilometres.

4. 4At the line

   No fairy tale in Gap

   A two-up sprint that ought to favour a trackman, and Kiryienka reacts a beat too late. Paulinho dashes at 150 metres and wins, giving RadioShack the only thing they will get from this Tour and leaving the French their national day and nothing else.

The result