Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil-DCM) was the driving force of today’s breakaway. And even though the stage was predicted to end in a sprint, he and his companions didn’t give up without a fight. In the end, the Spaniard continued on his own and was only caught 6 km from the finish.

“It’s pretty much the same as every time you attack, the idea is to go as soon as possible and gain as much time as you can,” Flecha explained. “It's the second week of the Tour de France so for the sprinters it's hard to control the race and manage the attacks. “It was hard for me to ignore the pain from my injuries as I crashed a few days ago, but I’m happy to have done what I did today.”

Flecha’s late solo may have been fruitless, but the classics hardman believed he had a chance: “I really went for the win. They caught me with six kilometres to go but I’m still happy with my race. When you look at the speed of the peloton, it’s nice to know that I could stay ahead for so long.”