The race heads into France to finish in Briancon. Mauricio Soler may fancy his chances in a finish he knows well, but on the other hand he is lying 87th Overall, 46 minutes down ... so maybe not!
Di Luca, Cunego, Simoni, Piepoli, Schleck, Mazzanti, Vila, Merckx, Danielson, and Nibali are the current top 10. They must fancy their chances for a stage win. I'd only bet money on the first 5 though.
There was bad news for Ag2r and Liquigas regarding yesterday's crash. Naibo and Iban Mayo both crashed yesterday and were dropped very very early - obviously injured. Fortunately for Liquigas, they have a strong set of climbers anyway.
The breakaway was soon whittled down to just two men.
Soler and Ardila, two colombians on a mission. In the pacj behind, other than Mayo, the only 'big' casualty is Bettini, who started the day in 12th.
The peleton arent very organised in decideing who should lead the chase, a couple of Caisse guys give it a go but riders who are struggling are able to cling on. Riders including T-Mobiles prerace leader Kirchen and CSC's leader, Gustov.
With 3km to the summit, Kirchen is gone and the peleton are down to 37 men. They are about to catch Cataldo and Bruseghin - the 5th and 6th riders on the road. The y are caught and Bruseghin has a long turn at the front catching Riders 3 and 4 on the road. Other Lampre riders are joining the line and the pace increases.
Also in the 'work line' are Piepoli and Parra. Why is this? With 1km to go to the summit they attack. They are going to fight for 3rd place in the KoM sprint. Behind Ardlia and Soler who will surely take the top points as their lead is 1'52. Wrong!
Piepoli climbs like a madman and surges past in the last few pixels of the climb.
At the bottom of the Col de L'Izoard, Piepoli and Ardila are leading, Soler has just been dropped and is 12 seconds behind, with a group of 22 sitting just over a minute behind.
Here we see Di Luca setting the pace, having taken over from Horrach. He must be worried about Piepoli. Nibali, Danielson and Merckyx are the three top 10 riders missing from the group. There are 6 Lampre riders in the group, 3 Caisse d'Epargne, 2 Astana, 2 Liquigas, 2 Ag2r, 2 Bouygues, 2 FDJ, and 1 rider from T-Mobile, Saunier Duval and Cofidis.
Milram, Quick Step, Discovery Channel and CSC are the 4 teams without a rider in the group.
Simoni, Cunego, Schleck and Vila join Di Luca at the front of the group, doing the work as Soler and Ardila are caught. Piepoli still has a 1'34 lead though. CUnego, Schleck, Vila, Parra and Di Luca attack!
Parra and Vila are soon caught. All other attacks are useless, but still no reaction from Simoni. Cunego's attack was the strongest and he has closed in on Piepoli.
Everyone expected Cunego to ride to the back of Piepoli's wheel and for them to work together to move away from Schleck/Di Luca who are in pursuit, but the opposite happens and Piepoli moves away!
Meanwhile, Simoni finally attacks and joins the front of the Schleck/Di Luca group. He sets a tough relay and Schleck is dropped! He falls back to a group containing Perez Cuapio, Valjavec, Guerini, Parra and Cardenas. Valjavec and Cardenas are soon dropped and fall back to the next chasing group which contains Plaza, Mazzanti, Vila, Efimkin and Caucchioli.
Up front, Piepoli crosses the summit with a minutes lead over Cunego. Cunego's lead over Di Luca/Simoni varies, as Simoni cuts the gap and then it grows again when Di Luca takes over.
We are still on the descent with 10km to go and Piepoli holds a 50 second lead over Cunego. Di Luca and Simoni are 40 seconds behind Cunego, with Schleck, Guerini and Parra traling them by a further minute. 50 Seconds behind Group Schleck are Perez Cuapio, Mazzanti, Plaza, Cardenas and Valjavec.
Cunego chases Piepoli hard but there is too much descent to make much of a difference.
Di Luca and Simoni begin to close in quickly on Cunego and Di Luca takes an undeserved 3rd away from Simoni. Schleck fades to 7th as Parra takes 5th and Guerini 6th. Perez Cuapio was 8th and is deservedly back in the top 20 overall.
A big loser today was Bettini, dropping 41 minutes to fall 39 places to 51st. Mayo had it worse but lets not forget that he is injured.
1
Leonardo Piepoli
SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR
4h53'07
2
Damiano Cunego
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
+ 47
3
Danilo Di Luca
ASTANÁ
+ 1'07
4
Gilberto Simoni
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
+ 1'16
5
Ivan Parra Pinto
COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE
+ 2'36
6
Giuseppe Guerini
T-MOBILE TEAM
+ 2'50
7
Andy Schleck
LIQUIGAS
+ 3'09
8
Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio
AG2R PRÉVOYANCE
+ 3'25
9
Luca Mazzanti
AG2R PRÉVOYANCE
+ 3'33
10
Felix Cardénas
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
+ 3'43
11
Patxi Vila
FRANÇAISE DES JEUX
s.t.
12
Tadej Valjavec
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
s.t.
13
Rubén Plaza
BOUYGUES TELECOM
+ 4'15
14
Vladimir Efimkin
ASTANÁ
+ 4'40
15
Pietro Caucchioli
LIQUIGAS
+ 5'02
16
Iker Camaño
SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR
+ 6'21
17
Tom Danielson
DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM
+ 6'37
18
Andrea Tonti
QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC
+ 6'52
19
Cyril Dessel
QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC
+ 7'00
20
Marzio Bruseghin
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
s.t.
21
Axel Merckx
T-MOBILE TEAM
s.t.
22
Marco Marzano
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
+ 7'32
23
Vincenzo Nibali
LIQUIGAS
+ 8'22
24
Sandy Casar
FRANÇAISE DES JEUX
+ 10'06
25
Patrik Sinkewitz
BOUYGUES TELECOM
+ 10'31
26
Joan Horrach
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
s.t.
27
Michael Rogers
TEAM MILRAM
+ 10'40
28
José Luis Rubiera
DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM
+ 11'35
29
Sylwester Szmyd
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
s.t.
30
Alex Ardila Cano
T-MOBILE TEAM
+ 11'58
31
Paolo Tiralongo
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
+ 13'12
32
Dario Cataldo
LIQUIGAS
+ 13'57
33
Sérgio Paulinho
DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM
s.t.
34
Luis Leon Sanchez Gil
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
s.t.
35
Mauricio Soler
AG2R PRÉVOYANCE
s.t.
36
Wladimir Gustov
TEAM CSC
+ 14'34
37
Andrei Mizourov
ASTANÁ
+ 15'48
38
Matthieu Sprick
BOUYGUES TELECOM
+ 16'25
39
Francis Mourey
FRANÇAISE DES JEUX
+ 16'54
40
Vladimir Miholjevic
LIQUIGAS
+ 18'39
41
José Ivan Gutiérrez Palacios
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
s.t.
42
Kim Kirchen
T-MOBILE TEAM
+ 19'19
43
Rémy Di Gregorio
FRANÇAISE DES JEUX
s.t.
44
Leonardo Bertagnolli
LIQUIGAS
s.t.
45
Thomas Lövkvist
FRANÇAISE DES JEUX
s.t.
46
Ryder Hesjedal
LIQUIGAS
+ 20'15
47
Guido Trentin
SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR
+ 22'23
48
Remmert Wielinga
SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR
+ 22'46
49
Cristian Moreni
COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE
+ 25'39
50
Charles Wegelius
LIQUIGAS
s.t.
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Danilo Di Luca
ASTANÁ
52h57'52
2
Damiano Cunego
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
+ 42
3
Leonardo Piepoli
SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR
+ 2'10
4
Gilberto Simoni
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
+ 2'48
5
Andy Schleck
LIQUIGAS
+ 5'35
6
Luca Mazzanti
AG2R PRÉVOYANCE
+ 7'05
7
Patxi Vila
FRANÇAISE DES JEUX
+ 7'46
8
Ivan Parra Pinto
COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE
+ 9'21
9
Felix Cardénas
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
+ 11'26
10
Axel Merckx
T-MOBILE TEAM
+ 11'30
11
Tom Danielson
DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM
+ 12'05
12
Tadej Valjavec
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
+ 13'15
13
Rubén Plaza
BOUYGUES TELECOM
+ 13'37
14
Vincenzo Nibali
LIQUIGAS
+ 14'06
15
Pietro Caucchioli
LIQUIGAS
+ 15'02
16
Vladimir Efimkin
ASTANÁ
+ 15'28
17
Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio
AG2R PRÉVOYANCE
+ 16'15
18
Cyril Dessel
QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC
+ 16'22
19
Andrea Tonti
QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC
+ 18'00
20
Giuseppe Guerini
T-MOBILE TEAM
+ 18'05
Rank
Name
Team
Points
General
1
Daniele Bennati
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
0
106
2
Paolo Bettini
DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM
0
96
3
Danilo Di Luca
ASTANÁ
16
93
4
Robbie McEwen
QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC
0
88
5
Thor Hushovd
DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM
0
81
6
Damiano Cunego
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
20
73
7
Cristian Moreni
COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE
0
67
8
Juan José Haedo
TEAM CSC
0
61
9
Gilberto Simoni
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
14
58
10
Laurent Mangel
AG2R PRÉVOYANCE
0
54
Piepoli was many people's tip for the King of the Mountains. A good choice it would seem:
