An astonishing 25 riders broke away early on stage 10. Included in that breakaway were:
- Popovych
- Voigt
- Voeckler
- Zabriskie
- Sanchez
- Morkov
- Goss
- Sagan
The first 6 are good climbers while the last two were only interested in earning sprint points. At the intermediate sprint, Sagan hit the gas way too soon and it was easy for Goss to earn maximum points and cut into Sagan’s lead.
These three earned the most points during the sprint today:
- Goss
- Hutarovich
- Sagan
One by one the riders would drop from the breakaway group so that only 4 remained — Voeckler, Scarponi and Devenyns, and Sanchez.
Though Sagan dropped off the breakaway group, he did not fall all the way back to the peloton. And once he had topped the massive Col du Grand Columbier, his team mate Nibali caught up to him and Sagan fearlessly lead him down the other side on an insane descent where Nibali would attempt to make up time on Wiggins.
Sagan would eventually crack on the next climb, the Col de Richemond but his job had been done. They had made up some time on Wiggins and now Nibali was on his own. Nibali had pulled back 1:20 on Wiggins with abut 17 miles to go.
Then, the GC group with Wiggins and Evans in it would crank up the pace and unfortunately for him, he would end up giving all that time back. It was a perfect plan that was just too difficult to execute.
Voeckler would take maximum points in the King of the Mountain race and as a result, inherit the polkadot jersey.
Somehow, the unthinkable happened when Jens Voigt rode across the gap and caught the 4 leaders with under 7 miles to go. He immediately attacked but was unable to hold off the others. There were multiple attacks by these 5 riders put in but in the end, it would be Thomas Voeckler that would win the stage. The French would be happy.
Stage 11 Preview:
That looks awfully difficult.
The riders that are within the top ten that are vying for a spot on the podium should be the favorites to win the stage.
- Vincenzo Nibali
- Denis Menchov
- Haimar Zubeldia Agirre
- Maxime Monfort
- Jurgen Van Den Broeck
- Nicolas Roche
- Tejay Van Garderen
You can add pure climbers like Samuel Sanchez, Thomas Voeckler, Frank Schleck, and about a hand full of the other riders on Radio Shack.
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