Oscar Freire finally got the stage win he desperately wanted wearing the green jersey, on the eve of the Tour's entrance to the Alps. With a late cat-4 climb seeing a number of specialist sprinters, including Mark Cavendish, dropped Freire made the most of his opportunities to take the stage from Nimes to Digne les Bains. Leonardo Duque and veteran sprinter Erik Zabel were also able to drag themselves over the final climb to finish second and third respectively. Freire now seemingly has an unassailable lead in the points competition, providing he can get over all the high mountain passes in the Alps. He holds the green jersey by over 40 points from Thor Hushovd who could only manage 10th on the day's stage.
The pace at which the peleton hit the small last climb saw half the field lose at least some time, but all of the main GC riders managed to finish with the leading bunch so there was no change to the overall classification. Bernhard Kohl took second over the final climb of the day to reduce team-mate Sebastian Lang's lead in the King of the Mountains competition to a single point.
With the first major mountains of the Alps in tonight's stage we should see a shake up of both the GC and the KoM competition. Riders well tackle the massive Col Angel (HC) as they pass from France into Italy before finishing with a cat-1 climb up to the Italian ski station of Prato Nevoso. Cadel Evans can expect to see a full blown assault on his yellow jersey as his rivals attempt to put some time between themselves and Cadel before the final 50km time trial next Saturday.
Yellow Jersey - Cadel Evans
Green Jersey - Oscar Freire
Polka Dot Jersey - Sebastian Lang
White Jersey - Vincenzo Nibali
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