Tune in at 8:00 AM ET for Stage Ten of the Tour de France. Rob Sturney will be liveblogging for your enjoyment.
Good day, all. We're back.
I'm Rob Sturney here with The Score's continuing coverage of the Tour de France. Today we return from the first rest day to tackle the high mountains. We've got an HC mountain making its Tour debut - the Grand Colombier.
The last time we checked in with the Tour, Bradley Wiggins had won the first long time trial and put 1:43 into Cadel Evans who is now in a Sky sandwich, Chris Froome only 14 seconds behind him. What can Evans do? Attack, attack, attack.
We've got a monstrous breakaway that includes Peter Sagan, Thomas Voeckler and Michael Morkov 5:30 ahead of the peloton. I'll give you a full run down in a minute.
Let's remind ourselves on the jerseys
Yellow: Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain/Sky)
Green: Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Liquigas)
Polka Dots: Frederick Kessiakoff (Sweden/Astana)
White: Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC)
Breakaway: Sagan (Liquigas), Millar & Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp), Grivko & Fofonov (Astana), Voeckler & Arashiro (Europcar), Cummins & Burghardt (BMC), Voigt & Popovych (RadioShack), Casar & Hutarovich & Ladagnous (FDJ), LL Sanchez (Rabobank), Kroon & Morkov (Saxo), Martinez (Euskatel), Scarponi (Lampre), Jeandesboz (Saur), Horrach (Katusha), Devenyns (Omega Pharma), Goss & Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge). Whew!
I'll never have the great sayings like "reaching into the suitcase of courage", "the elastic is about to snap" and "dancing on the pedals" like those two.
I see that RadioShack are wearing the yellow lids now. Except for Wiggins of course.
Here's the top six on GC
Wiggins
Evans +1:53
Froome +2:07
Nibali +2:23
Menchov +3:02
Zubeldia +3:19
Sky's Brailsford says that they're not interested in defending third place. Nibali will have podium as the back up plan to winning this Tour de France.
On the day off, Cofidis's Remy Di Gregorio was arrested at his hotel. He's been detained as part of a year-long investigation into doping based out of his home town of Marseille. Cofidis suspended the 2007 Dauphiné's mountains competition winner.
Also leaving the Tour, for completely different reasons, were Omega-Pharma's Tony Martin and Lampre's Matthew Lloyd, who will work on recovering from their injuries. Martin is slated to race the Olympic time trial.
In this huge breakaway, Michele Scarponi is best placed in 27th, 10:27 back. Goss and Sagan are going to fight it out for the intermediate sprint at the foot of the Grand Colombier. Sagan leads Goss by 217 points to 185.
Also in there is Morkov, the former red polka dot wearer, is in there. He's got 9 points to Kessiakoff's 21, but could snag five at the top of the Cat. 2 that the break has already started. Fofonov and Grivko will be there to make sure he doesn't.
104 km to go: Oh, they're already at the summit of the Cat. 2 Cote de Corlier. Morkov got it, though Grivko and Voigt tried to stymie him.
104 km to go: Okay, the break is almost seven minutes ahead of the field. There's a bit of a rolling plateau here with lunch just ahead. Mmmm, gel!
I don't have Twitter but I'll check it out. You can check out people's tweets without having an account. Is Tweeter Sagan all confident statements and celebration ideas?
Well, good for Morkov. He's now at 14, which moves him up past Wiggins.
Here's the polka dot situation:
Kessiakoff 21 pts
Froome 20
Evans 18
Pinot 16
Morkov 14
Nibali 9
Gallopin 9
Chris Anker Sorensen 8
Kadri, Moncoutie, Roy 5
100 km to go: It's going to be very difficult for Kessiakoff to hang onto that jersey if the break gets caught on the Grand Colombier, since the points offered at its summit are 21, 16, 12, 8, 4, 2. With such a big lead, someone in this break will sop up that big ol' 20. All Morkov needs is that 8. Watch out for Scarponi to take the 20 if the break stays away.
Egoi Martinez, Scarponi and perhaps Popovych should be the fellows looking to put Morkov in their rear view mirrors on the 17.4 kilometre, 7.1% Grand Colombier. There are four routes up this giant and today's apparently isn't the hardest.
Looking ahead to the next couple of days, tomorrow is our second summit finish on the Cat. 1 La Toussuire. Fireworks! (?). I'll be starting an hour earlier tomorrow. On Thursday, we've got two Cat. 1's early. I'll be starting three hours earlier, which means the alarm will be going off at 1:00 am!
He certainly seems to enjoy himself. I liked his wheelie over the line at La Planche des Belles Filles. Very Robbie McEwan.
97 km to go: After the Grand Colombier summits at 42 km to go, there's a steep descent and then the race heads up the Cat. 3 Col de Richemond which summits at 19.5 km to go. Then there's a little ramp to the finish in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine.
Yes, it seems like the Spaniards - at least the Spanish press members - have given up on this Tour and is looking ahead to late August! Valverde calls this one his worst yet . . . and there's so much more to come, Alejandro!
93 km to go: The breakaway has been fed. A BMC rider missed his musette, but Jens Voigt was there to give him a bottle.
Wasn't La Toussuire also where Floyd Landis bonked wearing yellow? Boy, did he ever blow on that climb.
86 km to go: This platoon of riders is still about seven minutes ahead of the peloton. They'll head up a little unrated climb called the Col de la Lebe.
Let's just keep our fingers and toes crossed that there aren't any more "Metz Massacres" on this Tour.
83 km to go: The breakaway is now on the downhill. Sagan takes the lead.
81 km to go: Voeckler has had a wheel change just before the descent. Arashiro, who we've seen in a breakaway on stage 4, comes back to help his teammate latch on. Sagan, Hutarovich and Goss are at the front of the dropping pack.
79 km to go: There will be a hot contest for the sprint in the valley and then you can expect guys like Goss and Sagan to take it easy on the Grand Colombier and wait to get swept up by the bunch.
78 km to go: There are 32 points separating Sagan and Goss at the top of the green jersey competition. The Europcar fellows have come back.
73 km to go: The huge escape is still over seven minutes ahead of the bunch. They are about nine kilometres from the sprint in Béon, where the climb begins soon after.
By the way, the laterne rouge has changed hand. Brice Feillu's time trial lofted him two spots on GC. The red lantern is now Jimmy Engoulvent of Saur-Sojasun with poor old Tyler Farrar just ahead of him.
68 km to go: Ladagnous has a little gap on his breakmates but doesn't look too committed to it.
67 km to go: Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Sky is at the head of the peloton with Van Den Broeck's Lotto up there as well. Liquigas is lurking back at bit.
66 km to go: Things are about to get a little jagged in the breakaway as it approaches that sprint line. Goss has Sagan's wheel.
65 km to go: I see Gerrans making a move to set up Goss.
Sagan starts the fireworks. It's Goss!
Hutarovich may have come second there.
Yes, Goss, Hutarovich and Sagan.
