The first stage in France has a hard last thirty kilometres. It will be hard to predict a winner here but the riders who exceeded on stage 2 may feature well.

Within 1 kilometre from the start the attacks begin. The first to attack have already been in breaks, Kreder (RBL) is one of them. It is not long before has is joined by brother W Kreder (PDA).

10 kilometres into the race Lithuanian champ Bagdonas (ALS) leads the now 13 man break realising the undulating terrain may lead to a successful break today. Only one man on the peloton R J van Rensburg (KLU) seems to want to close the break down.

It is not long before he stops riding and teammate Frapporti attacks to form a 14 man strong break, with only Iran Khodro riding steadily on the front of the peloton we now have the 'official break' of the day 30 kilometres in.

14 man break: Delage/Seo (KAR), Sagan/Velits (STM), Bagdonas (ALS), M Aldape (TLC), Fischer (BDB), Puccio (BZQ), Rosseler (SCD), Craven (TNA), Ljunblad (KLO), Kreder (RBL), Kreder (PDA), Frapporti (KLU).
A handful of riders were under one minute on GC, so it was strange that more effort wasn't put in to close down this break. Rosseler was best placed @"11.

With 110 km to go and the break at five minutes ahead there is a counter attack out of the main bunch, the riders: Mestre @4'29 (SSL) and Zaugg@3'02 (NEL).

The sprint @102 kilometres to the finish is won by Delage from Frapporti and R Kreder, fifteen riders are ahead of the peloton so there are no scraps to fight over.

With 90 km to go the break had a maximum advantage of 7'20. The break was continuing to be solely controlled by Iran Khodro with little interest from other teams.

With 65 kilometres to go Mestre and Zaugg continue to inch towards the lead break . While back in the peloton, Latvian champ Saramotins (BSE) and some Husky Energy riders come to the front to help out Iran Khodro. At 40 kilometres to go the gap to the peloton was @3:20.

With 35 kilometres to go the break traversed the mont Violette. There were some massive efforts. Delage took the first KOM point of the day but Puccio excelled here. Then the break constantly started attacking each other as a result they were not slowing down!

Zaugg and Mestre, for the first time, were losing time on the break ahead they were @1:45 but now were at 2:20, despite catching Seo who was dropped at the first climb of the day.

Back in the peloton the same riders were on the front with the addition of Grivko (AFL). The peloton with 30 kilometres to go were now 3:40 behind the break, despite splintering on the climb and losing 85 riders including Castroviejo (QMS) who looked to be on a bad day.

In to the last 20 kilometres and the break had a good gap of over 3'30 to the peloton. Ljunblad took the first climb in the last twenty kilometres which included a massive counter attack by Frapporti and gained a good 30 seconds, but he eventually slowed and was absorbed by the rest of the break.

With 15 kilometres to go and the gap still over 3'30 to the peloton, and only Iran Khodro making any effort to chase, surely the break was destined for victory. The attacks continued, it seemed everyone was attacking apart from Rosseler who was just following when he could, was he moving into the yellow jersey?

Into the last 10 kilometres and J.Sagan (STM) gives it a big attack....but goes nowhere. Bagdonas (ALS) then attacks but riders are able to follow... They reach the last climb before the finish......the col de Quehen

Puccio comes to the front and sets a fierce pace. Bagdonas, Ljunblad and Delage try to go with him........

But can't. Puccio finishes really strongly for the stage win, what a ride.

That really makes a good tour for Bezeq. But Puccio, Bagdonas and Ljunblad are down on GC this could well mean Rosseler takes the yellow jersey......

and he will. Phinney is the best on the final climb but still finishes 3 minutes down on the stage winner and over 2 minutes down on Rosseler, we will have a new yellow jersey wearer.

On the final climb some riders were suffering and fell off the pace, they were Navaro (SSL) and Durbridge (PDA). Puccio also takes the mountain jersey

STAGE RESULTS:

Points Stage:

Stage mountains:

ULTRA CLASSIFICATION STAGE:

OVERALL GC:

OVERALL POINTS:

Overall young rider:

W Kreder

ULTRA CLASSIFICATION OVERALL:

This a thread for race discussion, so please can the next post be about the actual race