Stage 10 - Bastille Day Break-Away

The 14th of July will always go down as a day in history. A year ago today, it was my last day in my old job back in the UK. So it's now been 365 days since I last had a "proper job" and swapped this place.

For this place, (which will remain nameless for the time being) ...... more about which later perhaps.

The 14th of July is also Bastille Day, and happened to be the day of stage 10 of the Tour De France. It took the riders from Chambery.

To Gap.

With the final run-in to Gap using the same stretch of road that effectively put an end to Joseba Beloki's career in 2003. And the same field that featured in that famous display of off-road riding by Lance.



Much as I predicted, the bunch took it easy today, and soon a six-man move was over ten minutes up the road. Nearing the finish, the attacks started in the break, and we were soon down to two leaders. At the line, it was Radioshat's Sergio Paulinho, who just managed to out-sprint Vasili Kiryienka for the win.

Also as I predicted, the French riders failed to make much of an impact on their national holiday, and top French finisher was Pierre Rolland in  fourth.

There was also a nice little move out of the peloton from Bile Bean Nico Roche. His last minute sneak off the front, saw him finish in seventh spot and about 1:20 ahead of the main field..... moving him up to 13th overall and leap-frogging the likes of Alexander Vinokourov, Michael Rogers, Carlos Sastre and  Bradley Wiggins. Nice one Nicolas, I'm sure your dad is proud.

In the fantasy realm, George has been uncommonly prompt and the scores are up already.

Thanks to Rochey, the Bile Beans have managed to slip into second spot, but there's still a job to do, to catch those Gherkins. The double whammy of Schleck and Contador in the Gherkins team seems hard to stop, and Ged is still out in front of the pack. Biggest score of the day goes to Dickie's Dirty Devils, (though I have no reason to believe they're any dirtier than anyone else). Another bad day in the saddle for Miffy's Random Riders with a mere 65, but they're still a fair distance ahead of the Kadence Kings.

Stage 11 should see the battle for the green jersey start-up again - as long as the break gets caught. The last few days have seen Hushovd and Petacchi going after some of the intermediate sprint points, and Cav should be up there in the dash for the line.