Evans In Yellow As Valverde, Cunego Crack On Tourmalet

In a stage that perhaps posed more questions than it answered, Saunier-Duval continued their domination of the Pyrenees, Cadel Evans took the yellow-jersey by a single second from Frank Schleck, while Alejandro Valverde and Damiano Cunego saw their Tour dreams turn to dust on the roads of the Col du Tourmalet. The questions: How well can Frank Schleck time trial? Just how good is Cadel Evans form? What trick do Saunier-Duval have up their sleeve next? Is Alejandro Valverde the most gutless rider of all time?

In a sight rarely seen on a high mountain finish in the Tour, Leonardo Piepoli led his jubilant teammate Juan Jose Cobo across the line to complete a Saunier-Duval quinella on the final climb of the 156km stage from Pau to the ski-station of Hautacam, just as Riccardo Ricco had predicted at the end of the previous stage. The yellow-clad team again used their tactics to perfection to deliver Piepoli a much deserved stage win after the work he has done to set up Ricco's victories at Super Besse and Bagnères de Bigorre. Cobo can now start targeting a podium possession as he moved into 8th overall just over 2 minutes behind Evans. Frank Schleck, the only one of the overall contenders to launch any real attack on the stage, completed the podium finishing 3rd.

The stage saw the yellow jersey handed over to a new rider for the first time in 5 days as Kim Kirchen was finally dropped by the elite riders on the climb to Hautacam, finishing over 4 minutes behind the winner. With Schleck up the road in third, the remaining overall contenders (Evans, Denis Menchov, and Carlos Sastre) followed 2 minutes later, just in time for Evans to take the maillot jaune for the first time in his career. However, it was a close call and Schleck will be heartbroken to miss out on the jersey by just a single second. Valverde (has any tour contendor ever had less heart?) and Cunego who were broken earlier on the Tourmalet, arrived a further three and a half minutes behind the Evans group as their overall chances went up in smoke. They must now look towards individual stage victories if they are to get anything more out of this years tour.

As expected, Ricco took over the lead in the King of the Mountains competition from teammate David De La Fuente with another excellent climbing display, this time to set up his teammates for a 1-2 finish on the stage. Ricco also took over the lead in the White Jersey competition. His 6th place finish on the stage far exceeded the performance of previous holder Andy Schleck, who unlike his brother cracked badly on the final climb and lost over 8 minutes to the stage winner. Kirchen had to suffer the pain of losing the Green Jersey as well as the yellow one and will ride Stage 11 in relative ignominy after Oscar Friere picked up the 12 available sprint points (and the lead in the points competition) by getting into the day's breakaway.

With the first rest day of this year's race tonight it is probably a good time to take stock of the event. In my opinion, there are only 5 men left who can win this tour:

• Cadel Evans (70% winning chance) - this is Cadel's Tour to lose. He is the best time-trialler of the favourites and the only men that can climb better than him while likely lose a bucket load of time to him in the time trial. Would be a certainty if he had more of a killer instinct and you could guarantee me he was 100% over the crash.
• Riccardo Ricco (15% winning chance) - superstar in the making. Will lose time to Evans in the time trial but no one can match him on the slopes it seems. Could easily see him gaining 5 or so minutes on a climb like L'Alpe d'Huez and may be an outside chance at the title if the rest of his rivals are watching each other.
• Frank Schleck (10% winning chance) - proved a superior climb to all his rivals (bar Ricco) at Hautacamp and hasn't really looked in trouble in any of the mountain stages (as evidenced by the fact he is only 1 second off Evans overall). Time trial ability will be his question mark.
• Denis Menchov (4% winning chance) - a poor man's Evans. Can't climb as well and can't time trial quite as well either. Would need a monumental collapse from one of the other three to be a chance.
• Carlos Sastre (1% winning chance) - a superior climber to Menchov and possibly Evans but has a massive weakness in the time trial caper. Could hope for a rain shortened time trial or an Oscar Pereiro type breakaway? Would be a massive shock but funnier things have happened.

Yellow Jersey - Cadel Evans
Green Jersey - Oscar Friere
Polka Dot Jersey - Riccardo Ricco
White Jersey - Riccardo Ricco