Good morning, afternoon, evening or night to everyone, wherever you're watching this from, to the 11th stage of the Tour de France. Very much the calm before the storm today, with the next four stages containing two Alpine adventures as well as the legendarily tough finish atop Mont Ventoux. Today the riders travel from Besançon in Doubs, named the "greenest city in France" and already featured in this year's Tour, down to Bourg-en-Bresse, capital of the Ain department which means one thing: the Alps are here. But whilst our climbers will have time to mull over their TTs yesterday and the mountains to come, the sprinters' teams won't be doing their time cut calculations until they're done with today's 217km trek, where they'll be sure not to be outwitted by the breakaway as they were in this city when we finished here two days ago, as Michael Olsson took a memorable win.
Ahlstrand in particular will be up for it today as he looks to stay in contention for the points jersey, which he lost yesterday to stage winner Spilak. With just four flat stages remaining compared to seven which suit the Slovenian, he'll need to be at his best, fending off the likes of stage 6 winner Grosu, who seems his biggest rival. As it seems they have every day in the Tour de France, the wildcard teams need to be watched: Cavendish a little but especially the duo of Mohs and Guardini for Fablok have a point to prove here.
Some rough winds today, up to 50 km/h and crosswind for much of the day, aside from a tailwind to the second climb of the Col de la Savine, and a headwind to the finish! However a downhill finish could balance that out.
A very large 9-rider break goes clear at the start of the stage! The peloton are in hot pursuit but a 1'40 gap will be tough to close! Dumoulin (Helped the Stage 9 break win! | 48th Points, 10pts) O'Shea Jacobsen Newton Budenieks Fejes (8th KoM, 19pts | 35th Points, 16pts) Hnik Leung (29th KoM, 3pts | 14th Points, 28pts) Braico (Helped the Stage 9 break win! | 55th Points, 8pts)
The crosswinds and high pace see 50 riders dropped already, combined with this climb of the Côte de Plasne sees the break in tatters too! Surprisingly it's the young neo-pro Budenieks who takes the KoM sprint, determined to get the points and knowing if he and a few others drop enough members of the break they'll be let go.
And the peloton, weary of a hard 200km in the crosswinds the day before a mountain stage, stop and let the now 8-strong (bye bye Newton) breakway build a lead, and some of the dropped riders rejoin.
Budenieks has to come from far back but a very good sprint means he just pips Braico, who went from far out, to the second KoM sprint. Just 7.7km to the summit of the next one!
And he repeats the trick once more, denying former polka dot wearer Fejes atop the Col de la Bucle!
20km to go now and a gap of 1'24 from peloton to breakaway, where Leung is being dropped as the pace rises. Meanwhile the pack has split in two! Luckily none of the GC top 25 are on the wrong side.
10km to go, mostly downhill from here but flat enough that 50 seconds isn't much of a gap - but at the same time, the pack couldn't shut a similar one in Besancon two days ago! Just four men left in the break now: Dumoulin, Braico, Budenieks and Jacobsen.
7km to go, Bourg-en-Bresse is in sight but the gap is just 33 seconds now for the break! Dumoulin dropped and so his stage win dream, which he came so close to in Besancon, is put on hold again. The sprinters' teams working together to make the catch.
Budenieks puts in a small dig but it won't be enough, 6km to go and the catch is made. A good fight, but it will be a sprint in Bourg-en-Bresse!
The three now-familiar trains have come to the fore: Jensen-Ariesen-Bertilsson-Ahlstrand, Gough-Haller-Cavendish, and Vermeltfoort-Calmejane-Gerts-Grosu. Mansilla and Houle, two of the smartest sprinters so far, are close behind, along with Kupfernagel, Guardini, Mohs and Tzortzakis. 4.5km to go!
Calmejane takes the lead as the Volvo and Kraftwerk trains get mixed up and lose their sprinter! Meanwhile Vesely, Afewerki and Reinhardt are making their way up, but it's still Houle and Mansilla behind Grosu who look the best of the train-poachers!
Quite unexpected scenes here as the eBuddy train start to leave the pack behind, now with Tzortzakis in tow and Vesely trying to catch up!
Gerts launches as the pack latch on to Tzortzakis, Vesely, Haller, Guardini, Cav, Houle, Kupfernagel, Mohs, Mansilla, Afewerki, Zardini and Kupfernagel behind whilst Bertilsson looks to launch on the inside with Ahlstrand behind! 2km left!
Vesely goes from a long way out but can't get the drop on the other sprinters as Bertilsson latches on! Haller catches up but Cav, Guardini et al still distanced as Mansilla looks to launch his own attempt to catch up to the top 7!
Ahlstrand really the only one not launched in contention as Vesely leads Bertilsson and then the other five in a line all going from 1.3km to go, Ahlstrand a little boxed in as I'm sure Grosu is aware!
Vesely slowing slightly as Betilsson and Grosu look to come around, the Romanian with quite some speed! Ahlstrand will surely look to come between Bertilsson and Grosu, can Grosu keep him shut in long enough? Behind Cav almost into the wheel of his leadout, Guardini and Mansilla follow whilst Kupfernagel and Houle look to shut the gap too!
The pack slowly splitting in two places behind, the sprinters get away but more importantly there could be splits in the middle with many GC contenders potentially caught out!
Vesely still in the lead with 600m to go as Grosu and Bertilsson almost draw level, Ahlstrand though finds the gap ahead of a struggling Tzortzakis and is looking to come around, this will be a close finish as the two favourites are going to fight for the win neck and neck! Behind Cav is not coming across and nor is anyone else!
400m and Grosu has 3/4 of a bike length's lead but Ahlstrand is maybe just coming a bit faster now! Vesely out of contention for the win now, it looks like he may be passed by Tzortzakis for third too! Behind Mansilla coming the fastest looking for the top five, as Haller and Bertilsson crack!
Grosu has just 350m and it's looking good, whilst Cav looks good for a top five but Mansilla and Guardini are going faster - the Chilean is a specialist in this kind of downhill sprint!
Eduard Grosu takes the win! A great set-up from his team and he was the fastest here in Bourg-en-Bresse, perhaps aided by a downhill sprint to save off his rivals. A second stage win and he and his team will be overjoyed with it! Ahlstrand will be dissapointed to be second again, whilst Tzortzakis will be happy with third.
Vesely with a long sprint takes fourth, a nice tactic but he couldn't gap anyone and was beaten by the top guns. Houle finds the slipstream and surprises to round out the top 5 ahead of Cav, Kupfernagel, Guardini, Stepniak and Mansilla in the top 10. No gaps given in the end in the 83-man peloton, so all the GC contenders keep their positions ahead of tomorrow's journery into the Alps!
A consolation for Ahlstrand is that he does take back green by 4 points over Spilak, with Grosu a further three behind. They'll be praying for breakaway wins over the next two days as that is no lead at all with mostly mountains to come!
Tomorrow sees us enter the Alps as we ride from the city of Lyon, of course built on the meeting of two rivers, in the Rhône Valley, over some early climbs before the centrepiece of the stage late in the day, the Category 1 Col de la Ramaz (15.2km @ 6.5%) before a long descent, broken up by a (for the stage win) potentially decisive hill as we finish in Morzine, in the heart of the Alps.
Some of you will have noticed tomorrow is the 14th of July and that is Bastille Day, a special one in France and at Le Tour de France. Will a daring French rider find glory in the stage win (as Richard Virenque did on this very route in 2003) or the general classification? Or will France's new King, Taaramae or Spilak, strengthen or begin his reign?
