Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) put himself in prime position to win the Tour de France overall when he dropped all his rivals on the brutal climb to La Planche Des Belles Filles and reclaimed the yellow jersey on a dramatic day that saw Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) crash out of the race. The Italian made a well-timed attack with 3km to go and held off Thiabut Pinot (FDJ) by 15 seconds and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) by 20 seconds to take his second stage win in the race.

 

Yesterday Vincenzo Nibali deliberately lost the yellow jersey but he barely stayed out of the spotlight for 24 hours. On another hugely dramatic day of the Tour de France, the Italian took back the coveted jersey when he won the big stage to La Planche Des Belles Filles in solo fashion.

 

However, the big news of the day was that Nibali’s key rival Alberto Contador was forced to abandon the race when he crashed hard on a descent in the midpoint of the race. Having taken more than four minutes to get back on his bike, the Spaniard tried to rejoin the peloton but finally surrendered and stepped into his team car.

 

This catapulted Astana and Nibali back into the role of favourites and the team took its responsibility by hitting the front, setting a brutal pace to wear out the opposition and neutralize a dangerous long-distance attack by Michal Kwiatkowski. The peloton was significantly whittled down by the time they hit the final 5.9km climb to the finish.

 

At this point, Kwiatkowski was no longer a danger but Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) was now the lone leader of the race and seemed to be in a position to take both the stage win and the mountains jersey. However, an impressive Michele Scarponi set a brutal pace right from the bottom of the climb to set up his captain for a final attack.

 

Nibali made his move just as they passed the 3km to go banner and after Richie Porte (Sky) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) had initially tried to hold onto his wheel, they both blew up. Nibali quickly opened a solid gap and started to get closer to a fading Rodriguez.

 

Behind, Porte took the responsibility to lead the chase at the head of a group that also contained Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r), Romain Bardet (Ag2r), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and at one point it seemed that the Australian was about to reel in the Italian. However, Nibali had an extra gear and flew past Rodriguez who quickly realized that it was impossible to hold onto the impressive Italian.

 

While Nibali continued his solo effort, Porte refused to do all the work on his own and Pinot exploited the standstill to take off on his own. While the Astana leader celebrated his big victory, the Frenchman who was riding in his backyard held onto second, 15 seconds behind Nibali. Valverde led the rest of the splintering group across the line 5 seconds later while Porte paid the price for his massive amount of work and faded back into 7th.

 

Tony Gallopin (Lotto Belisol) already lost contact with the group on the penultimate climb and lost more than 4 minutes to Nibali, slipping from 1st to 5th in the overall standings. Hence, Nibali is back in the leader’s jersey and now leads Porte by 2.23 and Valverde by 2.47.

 

Nibali takes his lead into the first rest of the race before the action resumes on Wednesday with the 11th stage. A mostly flat start leads to a hilly finale, as the riders will tackle 4 smaller climbs insider the final 50km of the race, setting the scene for a breakaway or a Sagan-type sprinter.

 

The hardest stage yet

The Tour de France adventure in the Vosges came to an end with its hardest stage yet as the 10th day brought the riders over 161.5km from Mulhouse to La Planche des Belles Filles. After 20km flat kilometres, the riders hit the first of 7 categorized climbs and from there it was up or down all day. In the final 20km, the riders tackled two very steep climbs, with the final 5.9km leading up to a summit finish that was last used in 2012 when Chris Froome won his first Tour stage.

 

The riders took the start in beautiful sunny conditions and all riders who finished yesterday’s stage, were back in their bikes for stage 10. As soon as the flag was dropped, Marcel Sieberg (Lotto Belisol) went to the front to set the pace but soon after the attacking started.

 

A strong group

Jerome Pineau (IAM) and Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne) were the first to try but it was the counter-attack by Lieuwe Westra that worked. The Dutchman was joined by Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Markel Irizar (Trek), Amael Moinard (BMC) and Arnaud Gerard (Bretagne) to form a strong quintet.

 

Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) and Christophe Riblon (Ag2r) while a similar attempt from David De La Cruz (NetApp), Pineau and Florian Guillou (Bretagne) was futile. However, Rodriguez had missed the move and so he asked his teammate Gatis Smukulis to up the pace.

 

Sagan and Rodriguez attack

Jan Barta (NetApp) made an attack and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Rodriguez joined the move. Meanwhile, the peloton slowed down and the gap started to grow rapidly.

                                                                                          

The chase trio lost ground and as they hit the first climb, their deficit had grown from 25 to 45 seconds. Pineau made another fruitless attempt to bridge the gap while Lotto Belisol started to chase with Sieberg and André Greipel.

 

The junction is made

Rodriguez did a great job on the climb to bring the chase trio up to the leaders and so 10-rider front group had now formed. Behind, Lotto continued their steady pace-setting and got a bit of assistance from Mickael Delage (FDJ).

 

With 134km, IAM wanted to be part of the action as Martin Elmiger, Heinrich Haussler and Sylvain Chavanel started to chase and they brought the gap down from 4.30 to 2.55 at the top where Rodriguez beat Voeckler in the sprint for the points.

 

Kwiatkowski and Martin attack

Over the top of the climb, Cofidis launched Rein Taaramae off in an attack and on the descent he was joined by Tony Martin, Kwiatkowski and the IAM duo of Reto Hollenstein and Marcel Wyss to form a strong chase group. Meanwhile, Sagan escaped on the descent and held off his chasers until he had won the intermediate sprint and then dropped back to the group.

 

Gerard and Bart had been dropped on the descent but they managed to rejoin the leaders before the second climb. In the peloton, Lotto Belisol now set the pace with Lars Bak, Jurgen Roelandts and Adam Hansen.

 

The break splits up

While Barta struggled at the back, Westra made an attack but he was brought back by all but Sagan, Gerard and Barta who fell off the pace. Westra rode so fast, however, that only Voeckler could keep up with him.

 

Moinard bridged the gap and later Rodriguez also made it back up to the leaders. Later Visconti also rejoined them before Riblon and Barta were the final riders to get back on.

 

Contador crashes

Gerard was passed by the chase group which picked up Sagan and Irizar and they joined the front group in the valley. Meanwhile, Greipel had joined Roelandts, Bak and Hansen in the pace-setting.

 

Tiago Machado hit the deck on the descent and was on the verge of abandoning the race but decided to continue. Moments later, the dramatic highlight happened when Contador crashed and he took more than 4 minutes to get back on his bike.

 

Contador abandons

The peloton slowed down to wait for Contador but when the gap to the leaders had grown to 5 minutes, Astana started to ride again. Dmitrity Gruzdev, Maxim Iglinskiy and Andriy Grivko and later also Alessandro Vanotti started to peg back the leaders and soon got some assistance from Hansen and Bak.

 

Contador was joined by all his teammates and tried to chase for a little while but shortly after the summit – where Rodriguez had again taken maximum points - he decided to throw in the towel. Meanwhile, Martin was doing all the work in the front group and his fast riding in the crosswinds had tailed off Barta and Westra who fell back to the peloton like Sagan and Irizar who had been dropped on the climb.

 

Lotto start to chase

On the fourth climb, Gallopin decided that he wanted to fight for his jersey and as Kwiatkowski was the virtual leader, he asked Bak and Hansen to join the Astana riders in the pace-setting. On the top, they were still 4.40 behind though as Rodriguez again beat Voeckler in the battle for the points, this time without doing a sprint though.

 

Astana took a short breather before they again started to chase with the Lotto riders and with 44km to go, the gap was down to just 3.50. Moments later, Jesus Herrada also started to chase for Movistar and on the next climb Tanel Kangert took over the pace-setting for Astana.

 

Fight for position

The gap was now melting away and at the top of the climb, it was only 2.45. Iglinskiy was back on the front on the descent but as they hit the valley roads, the pace was upped in the fierce battle for position,

 

Vasil Kiriyenka and Fabian Cancellara both took turns on the front but as the road started to ramp upwards, it was Kiriyenka and Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) who spat riders out the back. Meanwhile, the escapees hit the steep section of the penultimate climb and Martin finally ended another day of hard wotk.

 

Gallopin drops off

Wyss and Taaramae were also dropped and later Riblon also lost contact. Kwiatkowski set a fast pace and suddenly got clear on his own.

 

In the peloton, Kangert set a brutal pace that caused Gallopin, Andrew Talansky (Garmin), Yury Trofimov (Katusha) and Pierre Rolland (Eruropcar) to drop off. Meanwhile, Rodriguez and Visconti had rejoined Kwiatkowski but the Italian had to surrender again.

 

Kwiatkowski explodes

Rodriguez got clear on his own while Kwiatkowski was passed by Visconti and joined by Moinard. Scarponi had now taken over the pace-setting and led the dwindling group to the top of the climb.

 

Visconti, Kwiatwski and Moinard found back together on the descent but the Pole quickly took off on his own. Behind, Scarponi went down in a crash and this forced Jakob Fuglsang to take over the pace-setting.

 

Scarponi lifts the pace

Rodriguez rejoined Kwiatkowski in the valley while Visconti fought on his own for a while before giving up. Impressively, Scarponi had rejoined the peloton and when they hit the final climb, he took over from Fuglsang who drifted backwards

 

Scarponi, Nibali, Thomas, Porte, Peraud, König, VDB, van Garderen, Bardet, Costa, Horner, Nieve, Mollema, Valverde, Gadret, Spilak, Fuglsang, Schleck, Zubeldia,  Navarro, Mate, Ten Dam, Pinot were the only riders left in the group but several riders dropped off when Scarponi continued to ride hard on the front. Meanwhile, Rodriguez took off on his own.

 

Nibali makes his move

Navarro launched a short-lived attack but as Scarponi emptied his tank, he was brought back. Riders like Costa, Horner, Zubeldia and Van Den Broeck were now in difficulty and things only got worse when Nibali made hi move.

 

Valverde and Porte briefly held onto his wheel but they quickly had to surrender. From there Nibali flew to the top, passing Rodriguez along the way in a very dramatic finale.