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Cedric Vasseur, the 36 year old Frenchman of Quick Step-Innergetic, took a decade to repeat his first Tour de France stage win. In front of his French fans he delighted with the Stage 10 win that went 229km rolling from Tallard to Marseille.

Cedric Vasseur (Quick Step-Innergetic) broke away on the right side of the five-man breakaway 200 meters from the finish line, barely keeping his countryman Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux) at bay; the winning margin at the line barely more than the width of a tire. This is the first stage victory by a Frenchman at the Tour since Pierrick Fedrigo took stage 14 into Gap over a year ago.

Italian Michal Albasini (Liquigas) was third, with France’s Patrice Halgand (Crédit Agricole) and German superstar Jens Voigt (CSC) all receiving the same 5:20:24 finishing time.

The quintet was part of an 11-man breakaway that came together 81km into the stage and didn’t split up until first of two cat. 3 climbs, the Cote de Bastides 28km from the finish. Halgand led the way over the top, with Casar and Albasini in tow. Voigt and Vasseur bridged on the descent.

After some early action on the final climb, the cat. 3 Col de la Gineste, the five survivors crossed the summit together, setting the stage for Vasseur’s first Tour victory since 1997, when he won at La Charte riding for the Gan team and wore the yellow jersey for five days. Vasseur turned pro in 1994 and has said this will be his final season.

It’s a great gift,” said Vasseur, whose victory gives Quick Step three stage wins at this year’s race, following Gert Steegmans (stage 2) and Tom Boonen (stage 6). “It was the 10th stage on my 10th Tour and this morning a close friend told me that this was going to be my day. I knew a breakaway would form, and I was just lucky that I got into the right one. Once we’d got a good gap on the peloton I started to think maybe it would be my day.”

With no change on top of GC leader board, the GC guys took it easy adn kept as much as they could in the tanks. The peleton finished 10:39 behind Vasseur

Next up at the Tour de France is the 182.5km run from Marseille to Montpellier. This is one of the Tour’s flattest courses, skirting the Camargue marshes of the Rhône delta, just north of the Mediterranean coast. There have been 25 Tour stage finishes at Montpellier, the last in 2005, when Robbie McEwen won a tight field sprint after breakaways Chris Horner and Sylvain Chavanel were caught in the finishing straightaway.

The stage has bunch sprint written all over it, especially if the Mistral winds are blowing. The finish loops to an end on the western edge of Montpellier, an ancient city dating back to the 8th century. With the sprinters’ field cropped by the Alps, look for the survivors - Boonen, Erik Zabel, Robbie Hunter, Sébastian Chavanel and Thor Hushovd - to lead the charge to the line.

Stage 10 Results
1 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) Quickstep - Innergetic 5.20.24 (42.978 km/h)
2 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux
3 Michael Albasini (Swi) Liquigas
4 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole
5 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC
6 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 0.36
7 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Lampre - Fondital
8 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) T-Mobile Team 1.01
9 Aleksandr Kuchynski (Blr) Liquigas 2.34
10 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Rabobank
Full Results and Live Text Coverage by Cyclingnews

General classification after stage 10
1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 49.23.48
2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 2.35
3 Iban Mayo Diez (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir 2.39
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 2.41
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.08
6 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 3.18
7 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 3.39
8 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 3.50
9 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.53
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team 5.06

FULL REPORT by Cycling News
THE FINAL 1 km by Versus
STAGE 10 RECAP by Versus
INTERVIEW WITH STAGE 10 WINNER CEDRIC VASSEUR by Versus
INTERVIEW WITH JENS VOIGT by Versus
INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL RASMUSSEN by Versus
GRAHAM WATSON’S STAGE 10 PHOTOS
SINKEWITZ TESTS POSITIVE by Velo News
STAPLETON ONSINKEWITZ’S DOPING POSITIVE by Versus

Early race footage and the 11 man break by Versus

The Girls of the Tour de France, trying hard to create a distraction. I would say they did.