Bastille Day, Stage 10 Recap and 11 Preview

Stage 10: Well Bastille day came again and the french, as always, couldn't come up with the goods, but that was to be expected with a extremely flat stage. Despite aggressive attacks by french riders on their independence holiday no serious breakaway ever materialized, with riders never more than two and a half minutes ahead of the peloton. Even with the radios on silent for a day, as the tour organizers had an "experiment" to see what it would be like to go back before the days before technology, the peloton maintained good organization, catching the last feisty frenchman just over a k out. At that time Quickstep controlled the front and it looked like we might see Tom Boonen for the first time this tour, but unfortunately he remained in hybernation, as Columbia soon took the leading duties inside of 900 meters. Though they only had a 3 man leadout, different than the long trains we saw last week, George Hincapie was able to engage the homing missile that is mark cavendish, and Mark Renshaw launched him locked-in on the finish line, toasting Hushov and Farrar clinging to his wake. Cav' picked up a convincing third stage win, but Hushovd's 2nd place finish gave him enough points to comfortably maintain green. The isle of man native has owned the flat finishes this year and I look for at least 2 more stage wins for him this tour, with one on the Champs Elysee. GC standings did not change much today with Nocentini still in yellow. Don't look for the Maillot Jaune to change hands anytime soon with more flats roads over the next few days. But im sure Astana will be more than happy to escort it the rest of the way to Paris come the weekend.

Tomorrow in stage 11 look for more of the same, with another flat very flat day and finish. There will be breakaways on the 2 cat 4 climbs, but they can only pray to hold off the peloton full of hungry sprinters. I would be crazy not to go with Mark Cavendish for the win again tomorrow cause thus far he has been untouchable on the flats and as his tours in his young career have shown, his wins usually come in pairs. But all the other sprinters will not want to miss out on big points for the green jersey at the finish, so look again for Hushovd, Freire, Farrar, and maybe even bannati to be vying for the win, or at least high position at the finish.