We're finally into the mountains. It's touch and go between me and Robinson to see who leads.

We began on a nice sunny morning when a 4 man break went away. The first Categorised climb was a Cat. 4, and the riders went through in the order of Luis Leon Sanchez, Eros Capecchi, Remy Pauriol and Romain Bardet.


On the first HC climb went by in the same order.


A few second row riders decided to attack at this point. The first one was our new recruit Thibaut Pinot. He was followed by Dan Martin, Cancellara and later Morabito.


Unfortunately the weather gods weren't as generous up to La Mongie, and neither were the riders. I got blocked along with Robinson and we missed out on the attacks.


The first big names to attack were Andy Schleck, Richie Porte and Andrew Talansky.


I wasn't good enough up the climb but Robinson was. He went out the side when given the chance and set about joining the other favourites.


With 5km left Schleck and Kelderman were away together ahead of Porte. Froome was behind them with Pinot and the other favourites were behind them.


In the closing kilometres the whole race seemed to change. Froome passed his former teammate while the white jersey was alone up the road.


And of course it was him who took the stage, but would it be enough for Yellow?


No. Porte dropped even further back while Froome outsprinted Schleck to 2nd.


Robisnon's performance was highly respectable. He stayed with group Nibali and Contador but was outsprinted by them.


While I came later ahead of Martin and Kiserlovski.

Is this what i need to tell me where my future lies? I'm still the 3rd best young rider, and I beat some good riders, but this isn't really where I want to be. Oh well.

This stage will be harder, with tough climbs all over.

The first climb was a Cat. 1. LL Sanchez crossed the line first out of the 6 man breakaway ahead of Peraud and Sicard.

We all know Vincenzo Nibali's a good descender, but he crashed on the way down. He did end up fine.




The same order went over both the 2nd and 3rd climbs. While it was the day of good downhilling, as Fabian Cancellara went down on the 3rd descent.


On the final categorised climb the favourites went. Over the climb the order was Sicard, Peraud, Sarmiento.


This was unfortunately where I got dropped.


I attacked out of my grouo on the downhill and passed Meyer and Nordhaug.


The pace at the front slowed, and I finally caught them at the base of the final climb - all be it a lot worse for wear.


Thanks in part to some good work from Suarez, Rodriguez and Valencia, the next group caught up as well - meaning my work was seemingly for nothing.


With 10km to go, I got dropped again, leaving just 31 in the main field.


As goes tradition, Robinson got blocked several times and missed the attacks at the front.




He was finally gone at 8km, with just 18 left in front. The break had been caught, except Sicard, who was leading with Froome.


The Brit went away solo, with several favourites desperately trying to bring him back.


The yellow jersey came in 2nd, with teammate Gesink and Simon Spilak in 4th.


Robinson was again outsprinted by group Nibali and I finished with Sylvain Chavanel from the break as well as Barguil and Koren.

Not the best day today.

A break for us climbers for a nice flat stage.

A 5 man break got away, but the motorbike's camera failed so I can't give you the pictures.


We were ALL caught out in a massive split, which left us in a 100 man group. This (and another one) were caused by a freak pace which closed down 5 minutes between the breakaway and the peloton in just 2 kilometres.


Somehow the break still stayed away with the win going to De Marchi ahead of Flecha and Gilbert.


The Manx Missile took an easy 6th, while we finished in the same time as the rest of the peloton thanks to a great pace by most of the team.