Result: Rui Costa soloed home on the final climb to Super-Besse to win the stage. Philippe Gilbert put in a late surge to finish second and Cadel Evans led the group of favourites home to take third.

Here’s how it happened: Nine men broke clear at the start of the first stage in the mountains in this year’s Tour, none of whom posed any threat to the overall contenders.

After 25km, Vinokourov attacked on the penultimate climb of the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert and the Kazakh began hoovering up the remnants of the breakaway. With 2km to go, Rui Costa (no, not the footballer), was the only remaining member of the original break still up the road. At that point he had about a 30 second advantage on Vinokourov.

But in the final 1500 metres, the Tour’s major contenders became animated as Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck all traded blows as they marked each other out of contention. Eventually Vinokourov was swallowed up by the bunch of favourites as Philippe Gilbert changed gears and rode away from the rest in an attempt to close down Rui Costa.

But it was too little too late as Rui Costa became only the second Portuguese stage winner in the Tour in the last 20 years.

The Big Winner:  Thor Hushovd put in an incredible performance and continues to amaze in his efforts to hold on to the yellow jersey. The big sprinter managed to stay with the front group of favourites to once more defend his tenuous one second overall lead from Cadel Evans.

The Big Loser: Robert Gesink, the wearer of the white jersey as the leader of the young rider’s classification, cracked on the final climb and eventually lost 1’08″ to the main contenders. The Dutch climber was touted as a possible winner of the Tour and to lose this kind of time on a relatively moderate mountain stage does not bode well for the bigger challenges to come.

What about the Irish? Nicolas Roche passed the first major test of this year’s Tour with flying colours. He stayed with the likes of Contador, Basso and the Schlecks to finish in 19th place on the stage. He remains 1’12″ behind Hushovd but has moved up slightly on G.C. where he now lies in an excellent 14th position.

So what happens tomorrow then? The race continues through the rolling terrain of the Massif Central. There is no summit finish but there are seven categorised climbs along the 208km the finish in Saint-Flour.

With the rest-day on the horizon the following day, this could be the perfect opportunity for a breakaway to make it all the way to the finish. The G.C. contenders after their effort today, knowing that far harder days await in the Pyrenées later in the week might be happy to let the lesser riders fight it out for the victory.

The French are still awaiting their first stage win of the race, so look for the likes of Thomas Voeckler, Jeremy Roy and Sandy Casar to try and make it in to the break of the day.