Euopcar's Pierre Rolland won Stage Eleven of the 99th Tour De France this afternoon.
Today's stage was another one for the climbers and was a 148km long stage from Albertville to La Toussuire, who were both hosting Le Tour for the first time.
The stage included four climbs - two rated 'Hors Categorie': the col de la Madeleine which rises to 2,000m, with the top at the 40km mark; and the col de la Croix de Fer which is 2,067m high at the 93km mark.
One man not riding today was Fabian Cancellera who said via a Radio Shack Nissan press statement:
“I am not only a bike rider.
“I am also a husband and father with another baby on the way. It is my personal wish to be present when my wife Stefanie gives birth to our second child. That 'trophy' is more important than another Tour stage win or an Olympic medal.
"I already need to thank my wife for her patience with me during the last month in her pregnancy that has been difficult at times. The least I can do is to assist her in these difficult days.”
The stage officially started at 1.18pm local time and immediately saw twelve riders on the attack. They were soon caught and then there was 31 riders off the front with 9kms gone.
The group consisted of Burghardt, Steve Cummings, Gilbert (BMC), Popovych (RNT), Malacarne (EUC), Perez (EUS), Bole (LAM), Koren (LIQ), Danny Martin (Garmin), Cherel and Riblon (ALM), Dumoulin (COF), Hoogerland (VCD), Paolini (KAT), Hutarovich (FDJ), Gesink and Kruiswijk (RAB), Karpets (MOV), Sorensen and Sorensen (STB), Grivko, Iglinskiy, Kieserlovski and Vinokourov (AST), De Weert and Pineau (OPQ), Albasini (OGE), De Kort, Gretsch and Huguet (ARG).
That was clearly too many, so eight riders in Koren (LIQ), Riblon (ALM), Danny Martin (Garmin and pictured below), Hoogerland (VCD), C. Sorensen (STB), Kieserlovski and Vinokourov (AST) decided to go off on their own.
The seven were soon caught and twenty eight riders were in the lead on the climb of the Col de la Madeleine, some two minutes ahead of the peloton lead by Team Sky who had six riders in charge of proceedings.
Kern, Kessiakoff, Peter Velits and Scarponi contested the points on the summit. Velits took the 25 points with Kessiakoff taking twenty to put him back in the polka dot jersey.
There were plenty of Brits on a sunny warm day watching the riders descend the other side of the Col de la Madeleine.on the D213.
The intermediate sprint today was at Saint Etienne De Cunnes on the D927. Again there was a split and Rolland (EUC), Kessiakoff (AST), Velits (OPQ), Trofimov (KAT), Kiryienka (MOV), Valverde (MOV), and Scarponi (LAM) were in the lead group coming up to the sprint.
Kessiakoff took the twenty points for winning the sprint with Danny Martin, in a group led by Ivan Basso who has announced that he will ride The Tour Of Britain in September, picking up three points.
The riders, minus Mark Renshaw who had abandoned, then started on the Col de la Croix de Fer. This was the second climb of four today and had a climb of 22.4kms at 6.9%..
As it was the biggest climb of the Tour this year at 2,067m, there was a 5,000 euro bonus known as the 'Souvenir Henri Desgrange' - named after the founder of the Tour for the first over the line.
With 64kms to go, Cadel Evans attacked. He caught up to team-mate Teejay Van Garderen and was 23 seconds ahead of race leader Bradley Wiggins, who along with his Team-Sky team mates upped the pace and reeled him back in.
There were massive crowds, some not helping the riders at the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer as Europcar's Fredrik Kessiakoff took the prize and the points ahead of Rolland. Danny Martin got eight points.
The descent was another quick one before we came to the D80 and climb to the category two Col du Mollard in the Savoie Department.
Rolland took that climb and the five points ahead of Kiserlovski and Kiryienka and crashed on the descent. The Frenchman was soon on his bike and away again with Chris Anker Sorensen trying to catch him.
Rolland caught up with Kiserlovski and Kiryienka on the D110 which they stayed on for eight kilometres before taking the D926 in Saint Jean de Maurienne and the D78 at Reortier.
With Dan Martin back in the group of the race leader and Nicholas Roche dropped out the back, the quartet continued out front.
Behind them, attacks started with Nibalia and Roche trying to get some distance between them selves and the Wiggins group. No-one appeared willing to work at the front. so Rolland went off.
Nibali attacked with ten kilometres to go, and the highly concentrated Wiggins went after him, followed by Chris Froome who was in danger of losing his third place in the general classification after Nibali attacked. Some powerful riding from Froome and Wiggins ensured that this did not happen but suddenly, Wiggins dropped back as Froome went forward. The race leader caught up.
The finish line today was at the ski station in La Toussuire, which was a category one climb, on the rue des Fondeurs at the end of a final straight that was 180m long at the end of an 18km climb.
Pierre Rolland was away, getting the cheers of the crowds and he came home to win on a time of 4.43.54.
Pinot was second, followed by Froome just ahead of Nibali and Wiggins who was sixth.
Wiggins now leads Chris Froome by 2.05. Nibali is third with Evans fourth.
Tomorrow's stage is from Saint Jean De Maurienne to Annonay Davezieux and is 226kms long. Coverage starts on Eurosport from 10am UK time.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CSN/KM