Another exciting-looking profile and as it is before the ITT in the next stage, the riders will be aiming to gain as much time on the leader Fothen, as possible. He has suprised everyone by being so strong so far, but he looked to be struggling yesterday. If the finishline was a further 1km away he would've been dropped, but it wasn't, so he's still in yellow.

The favourites are the same as the other stages but the main riders to look out for today will be Schleck and Rujano.

After 10kms a break is set up and looks like this:



It contains Engels (Carrefour), Frohlinger (Germany), Halgand (C.A) and Zaugg (Switzerland). They went over the top of the first KOM point with Engels taking maximum points ahead of Frohlinger and Halgand. Halgand then won the first sprint ahead of Frohlinger and Engels.

On the monster climb in the middle of today's stage, Zaugg had to let the break go. Then the pack started chasing hard, which resulted in Kessler, Garzelli and Jufre off the front because they were pulling too hard. They sat up and dropped back though.

At the top of the big climb, the peleton had shrunk to 28 riders, including; Bruseghin, Zubeldia, Devolder, Dekker, Schleck, Rujano, Perez Cuapio, Sanchez Gonzalez, Evans, Parra Pinto, Sevilla, Fothen, Intxausi, Kessler, Garzelli and Klöden. Notable missing names are Solis, Abal, Giacinti, Pecharroman and Mancebo.

Halgand goes over the top of the climb first to take full points, followed by Frohlinger then Engels and they went over the top of the next col in the same order.

As the peleton started the 4th col of the day Moncoutie attacked:



He was followed only by Gerdemann, so after a few kilometers they were brought back. Suddenly with 40kms to the finish we had our favourite group on their own:



Present are Leipheimer, Schleck, Evans, Fothen, Dekker, Klöden and Menchov. Again the notable absentees are Parra Pinto, Rujano, Sevilla, and the riders that were dropped long ago.

With 35km to the finish Leipheimer and Dekker got clear:



They were reeled back in though, and Leipheimer payed for his efforts and dropped back from that group. Dekker stayed in there though.



Fothen is leading the favourites up to the finish and trying to keep them away from the group behind them, containing som riders who managed to bridge up and are working like, Devolder, Perez Cuapio, Sanchez Gonzalez, Zubeldia, Rujano, Sevilla and Garzelli.

With 2kms to go the front group consisted of Schleck, Klöden, Dekker, Fothen and Evans. Menchov had been dropped and they lined up ready for the sprint.



Who would win? Dekker is the fastest by a long way so theoretically he should win.



But he doesn't. Schleck wins!! But drama, as someone has bonked?!



It's Evans, 200m from the line and he loses contact with the front group and his 2nd place in the GC. Disaster for him, he will have a big job to do in the ITT. After today's time bonus' for Klöden he is now, just 4 seconds behind Fothen, the TT will be very exciting.

Stage Results

1	Andy Schleck	DOMINA VACANZE	4h56'56
2	Andreas Klöden	TEAM FLOGAS	s.t.
3	Thomas Dekker	CRÉDIT AGRICOLE	s.t.
4	Markus Fothen	MAGENTA TREFOIL	s.t.
5	Cadel Evans	SATURN	+ 36
6	Stefano Garzelli	TEAM FLOGAS	+ 1'24
7	Linus Gerdemann	MAGENTA TREFOIL	+ 1'32
8	Denis Menchov	CARLSBERG	s.t.
9	Haimar Zubeldia	TELEFONICA	+ 1'40
10	Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez	DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM	+ 1'48
11	Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio	FERRARI - GUERCIOTTI	s.t.
12	Ivan Parra Pinto	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	s.t.
13	José Rujano	CYCLING24 - HONDA	s.t.
14	David Moncoutié	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	+ 2'04
15	Levi Leipheimer	FED-EX	s.t.
16	Stijn Devolder	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	+ 2'20
17	Oscar Sevilla	TELEFONICA	+ 3'48
18	Stefan Schumacher	CARLSBERG	+ 4'44
19	Francisco Mancebo	ACCUMALUX	+ 5'08
20	Marco Marzano	LA GAZETTA DELLO SPORT	+ 5'16
21	Beñat Intxausti	ACCUMALUX	s.t.
22	Felix Cardénas	CARREFOUR CYCLING	+ 5'24
23	Matthias Kessler	TEAM FLOGAS	+ 5'32
24	Marzio Bruseghin	LA GAZETTA DELLO SPORT	s.t.
25	Xavier Florencio	CYCLING24 - HONDA	+ 5'56
26	Evgeni Petrov	DOMINA VACANZE	s.t.
27	Vladimir Gusev	FERRARI - GUERCIOTTI	+ 6'04
28	José Luis Rubiera	DOMINA VACANZE	+ 6'12
29	Bradley McGee	SATURN	s.t.
30	Mauricio Ardila	CRÉDIT AGRICOLE	s.t.
31	Massimiliano Maisto	DOMINA VACANZE	+ 6'36
32	Josep Jufre	MAGENTA TREFOIL	s.t.
33	José Antonio Pecharroman	CRÉDIT AGRICOLE	+ 6'44
34	David Abal	AG2R PRÉVOYANCE - RENAULT	+ 7'08
35	Jorge Giacinti	ACCUMALUX	+ 7'56
36	Johannes Frohlinger	DEUTSCHLAND	+ 8'20
37	Mauricio Ortega	SATURN	s.t.
38	Patrice Halgand	CRÉDIT AGRICOLE	+ 9'00
39	Ricardo Van der Velde	MAGENTA TREFOIL	s.t.
40	Addy Engels	CARREFOUR CYCLING	+ 9'08
41	Mauricio Soler	AG2R PRÉVOYANCE - RENAULT	+ 11'08
42	Maxime Monfort	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	+ 11'40
43	Rémy Di Gregorio	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	+ 11'48
44	Victor Niño	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	s.t.
45	Carlos Barredo	CARREFOUR CYCLING	+ 11'56
46	Steve Zampieri	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	s.t.
47	Giovanni Visconti	CARREFOUR CYCLING	+ 12'04
48	Oliver Zaugg	SWITZERLAND	+ 12'28
49	Sergio Pardilla	AG2R PRÉVOYANCE - RENAULT	+ 13'24
50	Moises Dueñas	AG2R PRÉVOYANCE - RENAULT	+ 13'32

GC

1	Markus Fothen	MAGENTA TREFOIL	28h48'14
2	Andreas Klöden	TEAM FLOGAS	+ 4
3	Cadel Evans	SATURN	+ 38
4	Thomas Dekker	CRÉDIT AGRICOLE	+ 1'03
5	Andy Schleck	DOMINA VACANZE	+ 1'07
6	José Rujano	CYCLING24 - HONDA	+ 2'13
7	Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio	FERRARI - GUERCIOTTI	+ 2'26
8	Denis Menchov	CARLSBERG	+ 3'22
9	Ivan Parra Pinto	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	+ 3'38
10	Haimar Zubeldia	TELEFONICA	+ 4'04
11	Levi Leipheimer	FED-EX	+ 4'15
12	Stefano Garzelli	TEAM FLOGAS	+ 4'38
13	Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez	DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM	+ 4'43
14	Stijn Devolder	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	+ 4'57
15	Linus Gerdemann	MAGENTA TREFOIL	+ 5'20
16	Oscar Sevilla	TELEFONICA	+ 6'14
17	David Moncoutié	FRANCE TELEVISIONS	+ 6'50
18	Francisco Mancebo	ACCUMALUX	+ 7'15
19	Marzio Bruseghin	LA GAZETTA DELLO SPORT	+ 8'30
20	Marco Marzano	LA GAZETTA DELLO SPORT	+ 8'37
21	Beñat Intxausti	ACCUMALUX	+ 9'04
22	José Antonio Pecharroman	CRÉDIT AGRICOLE	+ 10'49
23	David Abal	AG2R PRÉVOYANCE - RENAULT	+ 11'19
24	Evgeni Petrov	DOMINA VACANZE	+ 12'08
25	Bradley McGee	SATURN	+ 15'55
26	Vladimir Gusev	FERRARI - GUERCIOTTI	+ 16'10
27	Xavier Florencio	CYCLING24 - HONDA	+ 16'16
28	Stefan Schumacher	CARLSBERG	+ 16'32
29	Mauricio Ardila	CRÉDIT AGRICOLE	+ 16'40
30	Matthias Kessler	TEAM FLOGAS	+ 16'42

Points

1	Gerald Ciolek	MAGENTA TREFOIL	0	69
2	Danilo Napolitano	TEAM FLOGAS	0	62
3	Juan José Haedo	FERRARI - GUERCIOTTI	0	54

KOM

1	Patrice Halgand	CRÉDIT AGRICOLE	25	33
2	Johannes Frohlinger	DEUTSCHLAND	22	23
3	Addy Engels	CARREFOUR CYCLING	20	20