Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) plus former yellow jersey holder Sylvain Chavanel and Pierrick Fedrigo broke away early on the 196km stage.
Their lead was up to six minutes at one time but it chased back by a number of teams including HTC Colombia, who despite having lead-out man Mark Renshaw out of the race, were trying to set up another win for Mark Cavendish.
The trio were caught and after riders including Nicholas Roche had tried to get away, Alexandre Vinokourov did, with some 7.5km to go at the summit of Côte de Saint-Ferréo.
The Astana rider was to have his day and was first home in a time of 4hr, 26 mins and 26 seconds.
There was a bunch sprint for the line, some thirteen seconds after Vinokourov finished which Mark Cavendish (pictured below) won beating Allesandro Petacchi, who now takes over as the Green Jersery wearer from Thor Hushovd who finished eighth.
The second place was enough to give Cavendish the white jersey for riders aged under 25.
Andy Schleck is still the yellow jersey wearer and has a 31 second lead from Alberto Contador.
Tomorrow's stage is from Revel to Ax-3-Domanines and is 184.5km long. You can see the stage live on British Eurosport and ITV4.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service.