A second hilltop finish awaits the riders today. After the Mur de Huy five days ago, they will tackle the Mur de Bretagne. Van Stayen’s win yesterday shook things up as he took the green but more importantly the yellow jersey. He now leads the GC by a mere 7 seconds over Herklotz, who is surely keen on taking it back. The German has been dominating these types of stages so far, collecting two stage wins already, so another lead change seems imminent. But don’t discard Van Stayen just yet, who is a fantastic puncheur in his own right.
Apart from the very top of the classification, other GC contenders will try to gain time on their rivals or limit their losses. Guys like Spilak, Sicard, Madrazo and Meintjes should view this as an opportunity before tomorrow’s team time trial shakes things up even further.
As for a breakaway, there’s not a ton to gain other than a potential stage win, which seems unlikely given how much bonus seconds still mean to the peloton and how it has behaved over the last days. Also, Kastrantas’ mountain jersey sits firmly on his shoulders and intermediate sprints haven’t had much value for a while now. But at least there’s the TV exposure part.
Turek, Krigbaum and Kastrantas want just that exposure, although for the latter, there’s a bit more at stake: With a win or a second place at the finish, Herklotz is in range to take the mountain jersey with another stage win in La Pierre Saint Martin in two days. Win the mountain sprint here today, and that is no longer the case.
Azman, Karatzios and Lastra go next.
Van Niekerk, Anderberg and Rajapakshage join them and the peloton let’s them go to form by far the biggest breakaway we’ve had so far. And quite a dangerous one, with really strong rouleurs like Krigbaum, Anderberg and Karatzios as well as good puncheurs who can sustain a high pace in the finale.
Recognizing the threat, the teams of the top puncheurs get to work early and make sure the gap never grows beyond 4 minutes.
The Festina guys play their numbers advantage and only Karatzios actually does work, his two teammates relaxing at the back of the group. But they might be better off contributing as well, since the gap to the peloton is already down to little over 2 minutes by the time they reach the intermediate sprint.
More importantly, hanging back puts Kastrantas in a terrible position when the accelerations towards the mountain sprint start. Can Karatzios get him up to speed?
No, quite the opposite. He slows down and the mountain leader gets caught behind him. This is surely not how Festina imagined this would turn out.
The points instead go to Lastra, who adds 5 to his previous 6 mountain points. Azman and Krigbaum take 3 and 1, respectively.
Generali, Azteca and Tinkoff have taken full control of the chase. Especially the Russians don’t have much to show for so far, so they’re keen on giving Chernetskiy another chance at stage glory today.
The peloton is within a minute of the escapees and Azman is the first to go for it alone.
He holds out for a few kilometers, then is caught and Anderberg goes next. The peloton isn’t messing around though, so all this likely does is prolong his time in the spotlight for a bit before the inevitable catch. But that is something worthwile, too.
The adventure is over just outside the banner for the final 10 kilometers. Evonik have joined in the work at the head of the peloton and Becis and Riesebeek make the final effort.
As we approach the finale, let’s take a closer look at the Mur de Bretagne. It’s 2,5 kilometers long and the first half is the steepest. Get to the flat-ish part close to the front and you have a chance at the stage win.
Dennis and Novikov lead Spilak and Chernetskiy into the climb. Van Stayen in yellow on the far side of the road is flanked by Herklotz and Madrazo.
In the row behind them, Alarcon, Sicard and Meintjes wait for the right moment to accelerate. Morton can be seen right in the middle, Dombrowski at the bottom of the screen, just ahead of the Azteca armada around Eastman and Chaves.
Chernetskiy and Van Stayen move to the front early, still more than 1,5 kilometers from the finish. Herklotz stays calm.
Surprisingly calm, maybe. The finish line is still a long way off, but he has to be careful not to be boxed in on the right side. The same is true for Sicard, Madrazo and Barguil to his left.
Ahead of them, a few domestiques have their eye on a good result: Schlegel and Asgreen behind Chernetskiy, Kangert, Riesebeek and Kratochvila next to Spilak.
Under the flamme rouge, the road starts to level a bit. This is now Van Stayen territory, if he has some energy left. Chernetskiy still leads though. Chaves comes to the front on the right side of the screen.
It’s a bit weird, but there are just no accelerations behind. Do they simply lack the energy? Van Stayen moves past Chernetskiy, but if anyone else wants to catch either of them, they have to make their move now!
And there they are! The two leaders start to slow down and with high speed, Spilak is starting to catch up to them over the middle, as are Sicard and Herklotz to the right!
All three of them blow past the former leaders with ease, apparently timing their sprint just right and proving my doubts about their strategy wrong. A third place would return the yellow jersey to Herklotz.
It’s a three-way battle for the stage win. Spilak still has a very small lead over Sicard and Herklotz. Everyone else is just fighting for 4th at best.
Sicard takes it! At the very last second, he throws his bike forward and past Spilak. Herklotz, obstructed by a weirdly-placed sign, regains yellow but has to settle for third today.
Alarcon finishes 4th, a terrific result for the Venezuelan, who isn’t known for his puncheur skills. Van Stayen finishes 5th. He has to give up yellow, but at least extends his lead in the points classification by a few points. Barguil finishes 6th.
You can also see a gap opening behind the first 30 or so riders. This could have implications for both the GC and the youth classification: at the very back of this group on the left hand side, Gidich fights to hang on. Cavagna, who he trails by a mere 3 seconds, is a good bit further behind.
But for now, let’s continue at the front. Madrazo finishes 7th ahead of Chernetskiy, who once again fails to score a great stage result, although this is his (and Tinkoff's) best yet. Meintjes and Schlegel get the final Top 10 spots, Kratochvila and Chaves, also a big disappointment today, follow next.
Morton then leads Roglic, Dombrowski and Kangert over the line, all safely within the winner’s time. Eastman improves vastly on his performance on the Mur de Huy, where he lost time. In contrast, Olivier, who was 4th back then, only manages to finish 17th here.
Quintana, Calmejane and Berhane complete the Top 20. The Eritrean will be very happy to not have lost any time here and leave the hills behind him for a week or so.
Despite what looks like a pretty sizeable gap ahead of the ISA riders, no time gaps are given here, which means that Schelling also holds on to finish in the front group.
However, the final rider of that group to get the same time is Bayly on the left. That leaves a few GC contenders out, most notably once again Schleck as well as Galta. Neither of them are good puncheurs, and in addition they were just poorly positioned. Chiarello, who eventually leads the group over the line 48 seconds behind the winner, would be expected to fare better on a climb like this, but possibly suffered from his team’s focus on Van Stayen.
As you can see on the left, Gidich fell back to the peloton, missing his opportunity to don white, at least for a day.
And to wrap up the earlier talk about the mountain classification: Kastrantas, despite his poor showing at the mountain sprint, keeps an advantage of 21 points over Herklotz and now also Spilak. With only 20 points available the day after tomorrow, the polkadots will indeed rest on his shoulders until at least stage 11.
So, as somewhat expected but far from guaranteed, Herklotz reclaimed the yellow jersey. And barring some sensational result, he will keep it tomorrow as well, since Puma are expected to gain time on all of his rivals’ teams except maybe Generali with Spilak, who is 4th in the GC by now behind Van Stayen and today’s stage winner Sicard. We’ll take a closer look at the current state of GC contenders and how their teams are expected to perform tomorrow ahead of the stage.
While Van Stayen may be disappointed, Evonik at least gets a consolation price: the lead in the teams classification after a strong performace with four riders in the first group. There is also some movement at the very end of the GC. Heymes snatches the Lanterne Rouge from Van Zandbeek by just 16 seconds.
Tour de France 
