Real life: Voeckler took a splendid stage win ahead of Scarponi and Voigt.

With 100 km to the finish line 11 riders out front has 10 minutes advantage on the peloton. Kern takes the first KOM out of the break.

While the break peacefully crosses Col du Grand Colombier Gesink and Purito tries to attack from the peloton.
When Cameron Meyer cross the summit as the first rider the now nine in front has 13 minutes to the peloton. Apart from Meyer they are Kern, Knees, Elissonde, Peterson, Vorganov, Nerz, Hoogerland and Koren.

The attacking continues in the peloton and finally Astana cracks. Fortunately for Nibali but unfortunately for the racing other riders are willing to take over the work. The peloton has 40 seconds up to Samuel Sánchez and Valverde and another 30 seconds to Purito and Gesink.

Right at the foot of Col de Richemont Contador is off as well. Still no reaction from Nibali.

Froome sees his chance and attacks a couple of km later. This time Nibali decides it’s time to act.

The attacking continues all the way up the climb and Contador, Sánchez, Froome, Evans and Purito has a gap of 40 seconds starting the descent with Nibali himself taking the responsibility in the 54-rider peloton. Nothing much has happened in the break.

It seems Wiggins was caught behind when the peloton broke and the Brit looks like he’s losing his final bit of hope in the GC.

None of the breakers are natural sprinters, so with 5 km to go Elissonde decides to attack and is accompagnied by Kern and Knees.
They can’t quite get away though and the break us reunited just as the favourites are further back.

With 1,5 km to go it is impossible to predict who will win.

Kern is first to start sprinting when the hill begins 800 m from the line.

He is tired after lots of aggressive riding though and the win goes to Peterson.

Nibali really likes these uphill sprints, and once again the Italian wins 17 seconds on the competition. Contador really needs to start focusing more if he wants to win this race.

Not quite sure Wiggins can enjoy seeing his team climbing to the top of the team classification the very same day as he himself loses 3’30’’ in the GC battle…

Real life: To great joy for the French Rolland took the stage ahead of Pinot and Froome.

Now we’ve seen that too: Mark Cavendish attacking at the foot of Col de la Madeleine!

Surprisingly Cav can’t quite hold on when the climb really gets going. In the end Basso is first over the snowy summit.
With him: Pinotti, Gusev, Astarloza, Weening, De Greef, Charteau and López. They have a gap of 4’17’’.

Sky Froome and Saxo – Tinkoff set the pace when the peloton hits Col de la Croix de Fer.

Weening is first over Croix de Fer. The break now has 4’44’’ to the peloton.

The most dramatic thing that happens on Col du Mollard is that it starts snowing again. Pinotti takes the summit ahead of Basso.

Fuglsang is leading the charge on the descent with several small crashes as consequence. At the foot of la Toussuire the gap is down to 2’30’’.

10 km to the top. Basso, Pinotti and Astarloza still holds 2’30’’ on the favourites.

9 km to the top. Contador is on the attack. Will this be the day he cracks Nibali?

5 km to the top. Basso is looking good in front holding a lead of a minute to the closest followers. 1’15’’ to Contador and 1’45’’ to the other favourites.

4,5 km to go. Froome and Nibali makes their move.

2,5 km to the top Basso holds 53 seconds to Nibali, Froome, Contador, Sánches and Andy Schleck.

A close sprint between the GC top 3.

But that is only a sprint for 2nd place as Ivan Basso takes a deserved stage win after a very long day in the break.

Thanks to the low speed on the first three climbs everyone got in within the time limit.

Good old Hushovd is first over Col du grand Cucheron followed by Boom, Mondory, Stannard, Sé. Chavanel and Bodnar. They have just over four minutes to the peloton at this point.

Next up Col du Granier. This time Boom is first across the top. The break holds 10 minutes with 132 km to go.

When the peloton reach the intermediate sprint with 85 km to go the break still has 6’37’’. Sagan takes the nine remaining points ahead of Degenkolb.
50 km and 4’24’’
25 km and 2’08’’ – This could be close in the finish.

Hushovd, Boom and Stannard pull away from the others on the small hill with 12 km to go, but the peloton is coming fast from behind. 45 seconds are unlikely to be enough.

7 km and it’s over for the break.

Luis León Sánchez decides to challenge Orica - GreenEdge as the only remaining train with 5 km to the line.

3 km to the line and Sánchez has half a minute. No panic to be seen in the peloton though.

1,5 km left and things are starting to get close. Still 17 seconds gap.

300 m. The Spaniard have been caught by Boasson Hagen.

Splendid win by the Norwegian while Nibali takes the opportunity to regain the green jersey.