Tour De France / Tobias Gourlay / 11 July 2009 / Leave a comment

Tobias Gourlay sees today's stage as a chance for a lesser light to shine.

After nine years without it, Italy has the yellow jersey. Rinaldo Nocentini, 31-year-old AG2R team leader and party animal, leads the Astana triumvirate of Contador, Armstrong and Leipheimer only narrowly, and is likely to immediately give up the race lead in today's Pyrenean high mountain stage. A scorching attack by Contador - a [2.08] chance to don the maillot jaune this evening - on the final ascent moved him ahead of Armstrong and in to [1.37] to claim overall victory, but the ride of the day might just have been by Bradley Wiggins, who came home with the rest of the GC contenders, 21 seconds behind El Pistolero. Congratulations to Brice Feillu, who won the first Tour de France mountain stage he had ever ridden.

Today, the main obstacle on the route from Andorra La Vielle to Saint Girons is the Col d'Envalira, and it comes right at the start. There's another Category One climb up the Col d'Agnes later on. The profile is such that the main men should be marking each other closely, perhaps allowing someone with an eye for the King of the Mountains a shot at glory.

Cofidis's David Moncoutie, the [3.9] favourite to be in polka dots come Paris, hasn't earned a single point in the competition yet, and may feel he should do something about that sooner rather than later. The Frenchman is [13.5] favourite to win today, just ahead of Kim Kirchen ([16.0]) and Sylvain Chavanel ([17.0]). A couple of other home riders with appealing prices on their heads are Cyril Dessel ([42.0]), who won a similar stage from Cueno to Jausiers last year, and Sandy Casar ([27.0]), who won a long stage in 2007 despite crashing into a dog.