Piepoli was followed closely by Saunier Duval teammate Juan Jose Cobo, thus capturing the lead in the team standings.
CSC rider Franck Schleck, benefiting from excellent team support, finished third and came within one second of taking the yellow jersey.
Silence-Lotto veteran Cadel Evans really proved the depth of his heart, riding tremendously to take the yellow jersey despite having no support up the climbs.
The First Mountaintop Finish
Stage Ten of the 2008 Tour de France featured the first HC (Hors de Category—Out of Category, or too steep and long to categorize) climbs, the 17.7 km Col du Tourmalet, and then the14.4 km Hautacam. The stage also had the first real mountaintop finish There was no descent or flat for a sprint at the end; riders had to grind out a 7.2% grade right up to the finish.
The stage featured two Cat three climbs to warm up the peloton, but the real challenge was the entire second half of the course—long steep hills, that would tear up the peloton and open some big gaps in the General Classification.
As with the rest of the stages so far, the pace was abnormally high. Instead of breaking riders with repeated attacks, the strategy this year has been to push the pace so high that weaker riders couldn’t even make attacks.
The first real attack came 10 km out when a group of about two dozen made a break. By 63 km all but seven had dropped back. Oscar Freire, Jeremy Roy, Remy Di Gregorio, Markus Fothen, Fabian Cancellara, Hubert Dupont and Leonardo Duque stayed ahead until the first HC climb.
The Hills Are Harsh Tests
2.5 km up the first big climb, Remy DiGrigorio (Francaise des Jeux) attacked, but no one chased. Only Roy, Dupont (AG2R) and Ducque (Cofidis) were out ahead of the chase peloton.
Back in the peloton, CSC riders lined up to set up their leader Carlos Satsre for the stage and overall win.
