Stage 10

The road

At the start

Bastille Day on the Planche

Tony Gallopin rode into the yellow jersey out of a breakaway yesterday and wears it on the fourteenth of July, 1:34 clear of Vincenzo Nibali. Keeping it will be another matter: seven climbs, 3,900 metres of ascent, and a finish on La Planche des Belles Filles, 5.9 kilometres with ramps of twenty per cent at the top, where Froome won and Wiggins took yellow in 2012.

How it was won

1. 189 km to go

   Contador's Tour ends in a ditch

   On the descent off the Platzerwasel Alberto Contador goes down hard. He remounts and tries to chase, grimacing, then rolls to a halt at the roadside and climbs into the car. The tibia is fractured; the great duel of this Tour is over after ten days.

2. 220 km to go

   Martin cracks at last

   Having dragged the front group along single-handedly to set up Kwiatkowski, the world champion against the clock finally empties with twenty kilometres left. Two enormous days have come due.

3. 317 km to go

   The Chevrères takes the yellow jersey

   Kwiatkowski's elastic snaps near the summit and Rodríguez pushes on alone. Behind, Tony Gallopin fights to hold Nibali's wheel and loses it on these slopes; the jersey is changing shoulders again.

4. 413 km to go

   Scarponi crashes and comes back

   Pushing too hard on the wet descent, Michele Scarponi overcooks a bend and hits the deck, leaving Nibali with only Fuglsang. A few kilometres later the Italian is back at the front, bloodied and pulling again.

5. 55 km to go

   Rodríguez goes for the stage

   Five kilometres from the summit of La Planche des Belles Filles the Spaniard rides clear once more, the Nibali group well over a minute back, and the win looks his.

6. 63 km to go

   'No more', says Scarponi's glance

   Three kilometres to go, and Scarponi turns his head to his leader with nothing left. Nibali reads it, stands on the pedals and is gone — poker face intact, the yellow jersey coming back to him on the very climb where Froome won it two years ago.

7. 7At the line

   Twenty per cent to the line

   Nibali wins on the brutal final ramp; Rodríguez is swallowed in the last few hundred metres by a flying Thibaut Pinot, the first of three Frenchmen in the top five. The maillot jaune is Astana's again, and this time for good.

The result