Greig Leach

Dan Martin (Cannondale Garmin) who had made a spectacular bridge across from the peloton to the break away up the Col d'Aspin, was the first to summit that Col. He then hung with the lead group up the Col du Tourmalet until the last kilometer of the group. Well technically, he did hold on to the group, he just wasn't able to go with the attacks put in by Rafal Majka (Tinkoff Saxo) and Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka). Both Majka and Pauwels slipped away from the others and gained more time on the fast descent off of the Tourmalet. Pauwels couldn't hold onto Majka across the valley, and Martin was able to catch the Belgium on the final climb up to the finishing line, but just didn't have enough road to catch the climber from Poland.