Cavendish's Victorious Conclusion To Curious Day

The Progress Report
The 194.5km 10th stage of the 2009 Tour de France began at 12.37pm with 171 riders at the sign on. The conditions for the race from Limoges to Issoudun were mild, with a temperature of about 23 degrees Celsius at the start. There were three hills at the start of the stage, each ranked cat-four. They were the cote de Salvanet (12.5km) cote de Saint-Laurent-les-Eglise (27.5km) and the cote de Benevent-L’Abbaye (58.5km). The three intermediate sprints were dispersed evenly throughout the stage. Points for the green jersey were awarded in Lauriere (44km), Aigurande (122.5km) and Saint-Aout (167.5km). The stage featured a new rule that banned radio communication with the cyclists.

Teams Share The Chasing Duties
The first attack came from Hupond (SKS) who broke free at 2km. He was chased down by Ignatiev (KAT) and Vaugrenard (FDJ) and caught at 3.5km. At 5km, Dumoulin (COF) was in a counter-attack. He was at 25” and the peloton at 45” and at 11km Dumoulin caught the lead group. The escapees had to wait briefly at a level crossing but they maintained a lead of the bunch: 1’35” at 11.5km; 3’45” at 16km. Then Columbia put two riders on the front of the peloton. At 20km, the four led by 3’25”. The average speed of the first hour was 38.6km/h. Various teams led the peloton – including AG2R, Milram, Rabobank, Liquigas and Quickstep. The maximum gain for the escapees was 3’50” at the 27.5km mark. The average speed for the second hour was 36.2km/h.
Arvesen (SAX) and Pate (GRM) were caught up in a fall at 88km. Both remounted their bikes and the peloton appeared to ease its pace, dropping from 1’30” behind the escapees to 2’30” in a matter of kilometers. The average speed for the third hour was 38.8km/h.

Ignatiev The Passenger
Of the four in the lead, Ignatiev was the only one not to do any work. He followed the three Frenchman since joining the move. The average speed for the fourth hour was 41.1km/h. With 30km to go, the Russian did (finally) come through to do a turn of pace. With 25km to go, the bunch was at 50” and Milram and Liquigas started sending troops forward in numbers. At 20km to go, only 28” separated the leaders from the chasers. The pace picked up and the leaders increased their advantage to 40” with 15km to go.
There were several accelerations from Ignatiev in the final 10km and this helped keep the move alive until the final 2km but the Russian, Dumoulin and Vaugrenard were swallowed up 1,900m from the line. Hupond insisted as long as he could but was caught 1,400 before the finish.

Columbia Control It For Cavendish
Under the ‘flamme rouge’ the Columbia team was in perfect formation. They had four riders at the front of the peloton and set the sprint up perfectly for Cavendish who came off Mark Renshaw’s wheel with 220m to go and easily held off Thor Hushovd and Tyler Farrar in another superb display of sprinting. It is the Brit’s third stage win this year (seventh in the Tour) but he was not able to take back the green jersey from Hushovd. Nocentini finished 34th in the stage, at the same time as Cavendish, and will wear the yellow jersey in stage 12.