Tour de France Stage 10 - Macon to Bellegard-sur-Valserine
With Stage 10, the Tour de France peloton begins a three day campaign in the Alps. The first day after the rest day is always tricky, and riders never know how their body's will react. After 9 days of hard racing, followed by an easy recovery day, cumulative fatigue can manifest with a "bad day." You can bet that the Tour de France 2012 contenders hope that the King of the Mountains aspirants go on the attack early. If there are no threats in the break, Team Sky, now firmly in charge of the Yellow Jersey and controlling the race, will be able to ride a "comfortable" tempo. None of the main protaganists will protest a comfortable pace, as the following day to La Toussuire is nothing short of epic.
- Km 90.0 - Côte de Corlier6.4 kilometre-long climb at 5.5% - category 2
- Km 151.5 - Col du Grand Colombier (1 501 m)17.4 kilometre-long climb at 7.1% - HC
- Km 174.0 - Col de Richemond7.2 kilometre-long climb at 5% - category 3
Stage 10 features three categorized climbs, incluing the first beyond category (HC - haute categorie) climb of the 2012 Tour de France. Given the climbs, the stage is relatively long at 194.5 km or 121 miles. Tour de France riders will climb the Col du Grand Columbier for the first time (unless of course, they rode it in the Criterium du Dauphine in June). At 17.4km the Grand Columbier averages 7.1% but include two sections where the pitch hits 12%. These may serve as launching pads for one of the top climbers in the 2012 Tour de France to make a mad dash for Bellegard-sur-Valserine some 45 km and a category 3 climb of the Col de Richemond away.
Tour de France Stage 10 Results
As expected, a large group including Thomas Vockler, Jens Voigt and Luis Leon Sanchez attacked the peloton early only to be shattered into smaller groups as the massive Col du Columbier took hold. Vockler, however, found his legs and went on to claim the King of the Mountain Jersey by taking 25 points on the Columbier and 5 points on the category 3 Col de Richemond. (Apparently, his knee is no longer bothering).
Dries Devenyns (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep managed to break loose on the down hill run into Bellegard-sur Valersine. He looked set to take the victory when from out of nowhere comes a hard charing Jens Voigt (he's a beasty boy!). Voigt was closing the gap on Devenyns, when Vockler found his second set of legs, gave chase and dropped everyone on the final 1km climb to the finish!
Among the top contenders for the 2012 Tour, Jurgen Van Den Broeck attached the trailing field and managed to gain a few seconds over his rivals. He moved up into 8th position, while Tejay Van Guarderen dropped to 10th.
Stage 7 - Top 10 Finishers
| 1 | Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar | 4:46:26 |
| 2 | Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre - ISD | 0:00:03 |
| 3 | Jens Voigt (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan | 0:00:07 |
| 4 | Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Rabobank Cycling Team | 0:00:23 |
| 5 | Dries Devenyns (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep | 0:00:30 |
| 6 | Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat | 0:02:44 |
| 7 | Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi | |
| 8 | Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar | |
| 9 | Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team | |
| 10 | Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz) Astana Pro Team | 0:02:52 |
General Classification after Stage 7 (Top 10 and Favorites - what's left of them!)
| 1 | Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling | 19:59:02 |
| 2 | Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team | 0:01:53 |
| 3 | Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling | 0:02:07 |
| 4 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:02:23 |
| 5 | Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team | 0:03:02 |
| 6 | Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan | 0:03:19 |
| 7 | Maxime Monfort (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan | 0:04:23 |
| 8 | Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team | 0:04:48 |
| 9 | Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:05:29 |
| 10 | Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team | 0:05:31 |
| 11 | Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team | 0:05:46 |
| 13 | Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana Pro Team | 0:06:29 |
| 14 | Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan | 0:06:33 |
| 16 | Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan | 0:08:19 |
| 19 | Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma-QuickStep | 0:08:58 |
| 20 | Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar | 0:09:28 |
| 21 | Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:09:30 |
| 22 | Christopher Horner (USA) RadioShack-Nissan | 0:09:45 |
| 23 | Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:10:46 |
| 31 | Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar | 0:22:51 |
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