Will Frischkorn attacked right from the start of the stage, and was the sole breakaway rider today
He of course took the first sprint with Van Heerden taking 2nd ahead of Goss
He took the KoM aswell
It seems Ernst & Young are eager today as Rast comes through to take 2nd aswell
There was another interesting battle for 2nd at the next intermediate sprint. Renshaw takes 2nd ahead of a quickly closing Van Heerden
Frischkorn continued on his lead up front, peaking at just over 5 minutes
With 48km to go, he was caught by Devenyns and Podgorny who had attacked from the peleton
The lead of Frischkorn had been down to 1'20 but now with 2 companions it was pushed back up to 2 minutes
28km to go and its the penultimate ascent of the finishing hill and the break splits, Podgorny hitting the front
The Ukrainian is still looking good as we enter the final 5 kilometres
But the pack are closing, Devenyns being caught with 4km to go
Podgorny really does seem to be struggling now though
He is caught as the sprint begins and rather than sprinters, it is the climbers and puncheurs on the front
Tejay van Garderen charges away from the rest
And it's victory for the American!
Its close for 2nd though. Rovira looked good for it but faded badly on the closing metres as Kristjan Koren comes through to take it ahead of Igor Astarloa, Rovira and Kim Kirchen
Krzysztof Szczawinski finished 35th and everybody after him should really have lost time. But once again the gaps favoured the weaker guys and all those down to 80th were given the same time.
The big gainer from this? Mark Renshaw
He crossed the line some 2 minutes behind Van Garderen down in 76th place. But he loses no time, and thanks to the time bonuses from the earlier sprint, he even keeps the yellow jersey!
