After two summit finishes dominated by Rein Taaramäe, it's back to a flat stages and, most likely, a sprint in the small town of Orange, most known for its imposing Roman theatre.
This system of splitting up the sprint stages is being praised by fans, especially after that awful Vuelta a España with it's - oh what's that? No I didn't know the Vuelta was owned by the ASO as well. No, no, please don't fire me-AAAAAAH
Whew, just hurt myself there there. All fine now. The Vuelta was a great show of sprint consistency and has it's own merits as well. And did you see Paris-Nice? Blew Tirreno out of the water. Oh don't make me say that about Roubaix, I loved doing De Ronde...
Anyway, back to today as we begin in Toulon after yesterday's arrival at Mont Faron, just above the city. A fairly long day as we look towards the Pyrenees, 195km. Slightly lumpy in the first 120km with two King of the Mountains sprints.
There is certainly the potential for a breakaway win after two hard days in the saddle, and eBuddy and Volvo know this after seeing it happen on Stage 9, but they are nonetheless happy to let a very strong breakaway go: Boom (9th KoM, 30pts | 13th Points, 44pts) Dennis (42nd GC, 1h00'32) Kastrantas Boaro Richardson Van Baarle Braico (Member of the Stage 9 break). A supremely powerful group here, with roleurs and puncheurs alike who could definitely hold off the peloton if they aren't careful! Amazing to see Lars Boom, Stage 1 winner and the first yellow jersey, here after his effort yesterday when he was caught on the final climb and in fact came in 19th.
Nobody competing for the KOM points over the Cat.3 Pas de Magnan as the breakaway take an 8 minute lead into the next 112km, a solid gap but nothing the peloton shouldn't be able to handle.
Someone's about to get his camera smashed by the moto...
In fact the sprinters teams happy to leave the gap regulating up to Isostar, and with three days in the mountains ahead I can't really see the men in lime caring about who wins today, can you?
100km to go, and the gap is 8'04
90km and 7'36
80km and 6'56
70km and 6'32
60km and 5'57, following the 1 minute = 10 seconds rule the peloton should be ok!
50km and 5'15
40km and 4'44, the sprinter's teams ought to start helping!
About damn time as Volvo, eBuddy and Grieg take over, perhaps resting themselves in order to make the final catch! But with the gap still over four and a half minutes with just 30km left, they will have to make it quick!
Under the 20km to go banner the gap is 2'42, the advantage lies with the breakaway but can the fresh-legged domestiques of the sprinters haul them back?
Lars Boom starts proceedings early! A little attack here from the former World Champion with 19km to go, he seems to think that either he can already establish a smaller group, or already start fighting for the win!
He gets a small gap to the rest of the breakaway alongside Van Baarle, and potentially the two favourites aside from Rohan Dennis are riding away!
11km to go and the gap has fallen but only down to 2 minutes, the breakaway on Stage 9 only needed one remember! The leading duo not really eeking out much of an advantage and maybe it would be wiser to wait up for the chasers, who are still just 10 to 12 seconds behind!
The duo now caught by the rest of the breakaway, 6km to go and perhaps they're starting to play games here! Still a 2 minute advantage and it looks like our winner will come from this group.
Boom attacks again with a little over 4km to go and the town of Orange in sight! He really wants this, look at him go!
And this time he gets the gap he wanted! Lars Boom into time trial mode, and we know that he is one of the best around at such short efforts - look at the prologue in this race where he won! It's Boom vs the world, as the breakaway look to chase him down now, and the peloton is coming, 1'23 the gap so still unlikely but you never know when the legs might give out after 190km in the saddle!
Now Rohan Dennis is counterattacking! 3km to go and it's all happening here as we approach Orange, An equally adept prologue rider in Rohan Dennis looks to chase Lars Boom down alone! Braico is the closest follower, you'll recall the Moldovan was in the Stage 9 breakaway but missed out - he won't want a repeat!
Grieg take control back in the peloton but it looks like this may just be for 8th! eBuddy also forming a train whilst Kraftwerk and Volvo can't! Reinhardt well positioned on the wheel of Boeckmans.
Oh my word, this is basically just a 7-man 2500m long sprint! Boom still with a gap to Dennis and Braico, but can he sustain this effort to the line?
Wow, Braico finds a second wind and has almost caught Lars Boom with 1.6km left! The flamme rouge is in sight but not yet the line due to the curved straight finish and the fans lining the route to see what could become a showdown of Alexandr Braico and Lars Boom, as Rohan Dennis fades a bit!
1.2km to go and can anybody stop this stunning sprint of Alexandr Braico? Maybe Kastrantas can, as he shoots off from the struggling chasers but he has a long way to come yet!
900m left, normally a long way to go in a sprint but Lars Boom is clearly paying for his earlier efforts and it could be 900m out in front for Braico!
Braico also slowing, it's a race of dying men here with 700m left, can Lars Boom find a second wind here to overtake Braico? He needs a punch or the Moldovan can roll in ahead of him!
Behind Dennis still leads Kastrantas, who slowed after his inital burst.
500m to go and I think Braico has this as Richardson and Boaro look to climb onto the podium!
Lars Boom just can't find it in him to come back around and so
Alexandr Braico takes a wonderful stage win here in Orange! The UBS man played it smart and came past with an astonishing long sprint to hold off Lars Boom, and clearly learned a thing or two from Stage 9! Another team here with something out of this Tour de France, and perhaps the pressure eases a tad for their leader Schelling.
Lars Boom has given it everything the last two days to win a second stage here and you have to feel damn sorry for the man. He's got to be challenging Nerz for the Super-combativity prize, and today he rode superbly with an impressive solo effort but was just beaten by a great sprint from Braico. Rohan Dennis as a TT man does well to end up on the podium here too, taking the initiative chasing down Boom!
Kastrantas with a punch comes into fourth ahead of Richardson, Boaro and van Baarle. Good results for all of them well ahead of the pack, but at this kind of opportunity not winning must really sting for a while.
Back in the peloton, Grieg have made a meal of this leadout as their third man is still on the front under the flamme rouge and Boeckmans is boxed in! Grosu has room to launch in the middle and may take his fourth pack sprint win, whilst Vesely is going from range on the outside!
However Boeckmans recovers well and takes the lead here ahead of Grosu, Vesely fades and Houle looks to claim the third spot left in the top 10!
Reinhardt and Houle and then Grosu and Boeckmans will have photo finishes, I can't pick that as there's a very tight sprint there! Would have been an entertaining fight for the win, but not as much as that breakaway battle!
He can't seem to believe it but Alexandr Braico comes onto the podium to accept the wild congratulations the crowd give to a new breakaway winner at Le Tour! A fantastic victory from the Moldovan - soak it in lad, this is a special moment.
A man more used to the podium glitz is Simon Spilak - in general and at this Tour de France as he's gone through countless stage win, yellow jersey, green jersey or team classification collections - the real test for him is if he gets this yellow jersey around his shoulders tomorrow, or the next day, or the one after that.
The Pyrenees are coming tomorrow, as the riders cross the the prestigious HC monsters of the Aubisque (from the shorter (well longer but without Solour), steeper side (16.6km @ 7.2%) and the legendary Col du Tourmalet from Luz-Saint-Sauveur, the longer and tougher side (19km @ 7.4%), before a new finish - a short downhill finish to the ski station of La Mongie, usually climbed to for a finish. Already a day where margins will be of minutes, especially if the Aubisque lights up. Don't miss a second of it by tuning in tomorrow morning. What a treat.
