Stage 10 – Bastille Day Comes Early for French Fans at the Tour

Allons enfants de la patrie,
Le jour de Gloire est arrivee!

French cycling hero Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) pulled off a podium hat trick today, three days prior to French national holiday Bastille Day.  He joined the early breakaway, pushed its pace throughout the day, collected climbing points on all three mountains, and held off two challengers at the finish line to capture the stage victory.  For that effort he won the Most Combative award (red race number for tomorrow), he moved into first place in climbing points (polka-dot King of Mountains jersey), and he claimed the podium spot for stage winner.  France goes ga-ga when a native son brings them glory in their own race.  Voeckler could be elected president if they voted today!

Previous polka-dot jersey holder Kessiakoff didn’t contest any of the climbing points today, and was eclipsed by Voeckler’s one-day harvest of 28 points.  Michael Morkov made a showing on the first mountain for 5 points, but he was long-gone before the summit of the really big 25-point mountain.

Tejay Van Garderen held onto the white jersey (youth classification), but he conceded 17 seconds to Rein Taaramae.  Tejay dropped from 8^th overall to 10^th.  Taaramae is still in 12^th place, trailing Van Garderen by just 25 seconds now.

The top 20 in the GC classification came through mostly unchanged.  Jurgen Van den Broeck moved up from 9^th to 8^th, and reduced his deficit to Wiggins by 32 seconds.  He still trails by almost 5 minutes, but he at least made a symbolic attack.  Gallopin, Chavenel and Velits dropped out of the top 20, while Scarponi, Pinot and Rolland moved up.  Cadel Evans and Vincenzo Nibali each tried to attack Bradley Wiggins, but were both reeled in, and finished with the same time.  The standings and time gaps among the top five remain the same, with Wiggins still wearing the yellow jersey, and the next four riders with time gaps ranging between 2 and 3 minutes.

Tomorrow’s stage features 4 mountains—two HC (beyond classification, harder than category 1), a category 2, and a summit-finish category 1.  If anyone is going to attack Wiggins, this is the time to do it.  We shall see.

Jurgen Van den Broeck at the sumjmit of the Col du Tourmalet after a training ride in 2011.  He was one of the few to gain time on Wiggins today.  Will he be able to make up the 4'48" gap still separating them?