Stage 10

The road

At the start

Voeckler in yellow, nine gone home

One descent on Sunday cost the Tour Jurgen Van den Broeck, Alexandre Vinokourov, Frederik Willems and Dave Zabriskie, and a France Télévisions car put Juan Antonio Flecha into the road and Johnny Hoogerland into a barbed-wire fence. Out of all of it Thomas Voeckler has the yellow jersey, 1:49 up on Luis León Sánchez and 2:26 on Cadel Evans. Today, after the rest day, runs to Carmaux over one small late climb.

How it was won

1. 1120 km to go

   Maurs

   The six escapees take the big points off the descent into the town. Behind them the sprinters fight over the scraps and Cavendish beats Rojas, who is not at all happy about being put against the barriers.

2. 210 km to go

   Gilbert rides it like Liège

   The last climb is not hard; the speed Omega Pharma-Lotto hit it with is. The break is swallowed whole and the sprinters are in trouble, and Gilbert stamps on the pedals as though this were the Ardennes, taking Gallopin, Voeckler and Devenyns with him. Then Tony Martin gets across, and for several minutes the Tour is on a knife edge with the yellow and green jerseys up the road together.

3. 35 km to go

   Leopard Trek shut it down

   One last dig from Gilbert and the five are caught with five kilometres left. Kadri and Ruijgh try again and are pulled back on the descent.

4. 4At the line

   Greipel, at last

   Renshaw and Eisel burned themselves out on the climb and Cavendish comes under the flamme rouge isolated and vulnerable. Greipel sees it, comes through late and fast, and finally beats his old teammate in a sprint that counts.

The result