Result: AFTER WORKING SO hard for Mark Cavendish over recent stages, Matteo Trentin became Italy’s first stage winner of this year’s Tour when he chased down Julien Simon in the last kilometre before out sprinting Michael Albasini.
The result had very little impact on General Classification though.
How it happened: An 18 man group took off right from the start and quickly opened up a lead of more than eighty seconds.
The peleton couldn’t seem to decide who would chase them down with Euskaltel and Sky leading it but without either really trying to close the gap and with 45km to go the lead was nearly five minutes.
At that stage, France’s Julien Simon got away from the front of the breakaway and had a 14 second lead with less than 3km to go.
Sadly for Simon, he couldn’t hold on and Omega Pharma’s Trentin sat at the back of the five riders who chased him down before pouncing to claim the stage win.
The big winner: Omega Pharma. That’s two stage wins in a row for the team and their fourth overall on the tour.
The big loser: Julien Simon. The Sojasun rider looked nailed on to win with 4km to go but couldn’t give France their first stage win of this year’s tour.
Who is wearing what jersey?
- Yellow (Overall): Chris Froome
- Green (Points): Peter Sagan
- Polka-Dot (Mountains): Pierre Rolland
- White (Young Rider): Michal Kwiatkowski
What about the Irish? Having missed the break, both Nico Roche and Dan Martin sat in the peleton, coming home some seven minutes behind the stage winner. Martin remains 11th but Roche has slipped back to 36th.
What happens tomorrow then? Tomorrow sees the riders tackle the longest and toughest stage of this year’s Tour from Givors to Mont Ventoux and will go a long way to deciding the winner. If that isn’t enough to whet the appetite, it’s also Bastille Day so the French will be desperate for success.
