Real life: Greipel took a sprint win ahead of Sagan and Boasson Hagen.

It’s a close sprint for the last point on the intermediate sprint after the early break took all the big ones. Cavendish gets it and with 94 km to go and only 6’30’’ up to the break it looks like he will get even more points at the end of the stage.

20 km to the line. 8 riders hold a gap of 1’25’’ to the peloton. A strong group with rider like Hushovd, Ventoso, Westra and Swift.

With 14 km to the line Marcel Kittel starts a big crash splitting the peloton in two. Urán on 17th is the best placed in the GC to be caught behind.

Final 7 km. Hushovd is now alone in front. The crash made the pelotons chase somewhat unorganized giving new life to the breakers.

Cancellara takes advantage, attacks from the peloton and quickly passes the tired riders from the break. With 5 km to go he has 12 seconds to Hushovd, and further 19 seconds to Swift, Moser, Turgot, Zabriskie and Roy. Astana is leading the peloton 36 seconds behind this group

1,5 km left. Nothing much has changed in term of time differences.

Cancellara steals another one.

Cavendish just fight his way to third and back in green.

Week 6: Limoux - Paris
Stage 36

Stage 37

Stage 38

Stage 39

Stage 40

Stage 41

Stage 42

Stage 36: Limoux - Fois

Real life: Luis León Sánchez took the stage ahead of Sagan and Casar.

A nine-rider break gets away without any trouble early on. When the peloton reached the intermediate sprint only Sagan and Boasson Hagen really went for it. Sagan came first and took 6 pts.

With 100 km to go the gap is constant around eight minutes.
When the break reaches the foot of the first climb the gap has been brought down to 4’40’’.
Luckily for the peloton they work nicely together and the breaks loses a lot of momemntum when hitting the mountain. 5’30’’ at the summit.

Has Nibali any big plans for today as Kangert, Fuglsang and Kessiakoff are told to control the speed back in the peloton?

Peterson leads the break over the last climb of the day. Now again 7’43’’ ahead of the peloton. Looks like the stage will go to the breakaway as nothing happens in the peloton.

14 km to the line and Frank attacks from the break. No one follows at first.
The Swiss rider is slowly reeled back in though. Who will be fastest in a sprint between Frank, Peterson, Hoogerland, Weening, Vorganov, Kern, López and Roy?

Weening opens the sprint early with Peterson on his wheel.

Going under la flame rouge Peterson opens his sprint followed by Frank and Vorganov.

And it goes to the Russian champion!

Nothing of interest happened among the favourites. In fact they started the sprint so late that Astana pretty much just rode their train across the line!

Surprisingly 6 riders had to abandon after the stage: Renshaw, Sé. Chavanel, Kittel and three of Kittels helpers (Veelers, De Kort and Ahlstrand). Must have been due to a crash, though I didn’t notice it happening.

Stage 37: Samatan - Pau

Real life: Fedrigo took the stage out of a break ahead of Vandevelde and Voeckler.

Going into the last 100 km 11 riders hold just over 6 minutes with the sprinters teams leading the peloton.

Apparently the sprinters didn’t want the stage anyway and have left it to Astana to lead the peloton to the line. With 50 km to go the gap has grown to almost 10 minutes.
11 riders to fight for the stage. Three former stage winners among them with Gilbert the only double stage-winner represented in the break.

The 11 are: Gilbert, Peterson, Westra, Knees, Roux, Arashiro, Millar, Castroviejo, Durbridge, Spilak and Gusev.

Knees is the first to take a chance in the break. 13, 5 km to the line and it’s about time something interesting happened in the race!

He gets a small gap and holds it nicely, but with 5 km to go it is down to 20 seconds. Unlikely to be sufficient.

Peterson opens the sprint among the chasers with 3 km to the line thus eliminating his own chances for a win.

1,5 km to the line. The former German champion is struggling to hold the chasers away as Roux goes past Peterson chasing the win.

1 km left. Gilbert right at the back of the group. Will he have a jump worthy of the jersey?

500 m. Things are closing up. Arashiro with a small advantage, while Gilbert seems to be boxed in the back of the group.

There you have it: David Millar the sprinter!

And NOW Lotto Belisol and Omega Pharma – QuickStep wants to work in the peloton???
Well at least Cavendish wins the sprint for 12th fairly easy - I'm sure he'll be happy enough with that...