Stage 10 Review
By Paul Sherwen

A long flat stage which ended in a sprint, that's not really a surprise and pretty much what we expected on the first day back after the rest day.

Probably the biggest news was that no race radios where used on the stage and there was a kind of an unofficial go slow as a protest.

It seems like all the teams of the sprinters decided to leave a breakaway of four men hover off the front of the main field and then finally get hauled back in at the end. Mind you if there was a go-slow protest it was run off at 40 kilometres per hour!!

The run in was a formality for Columbia HTC and they took over the reins of the pack at about three kilometres to go and used up all their men one by one to set a scorching pace. Into the last kilometre it was the same suspects in the first three places- Hincapie- Renshaw- Cavendish.

Hincapie made a long turn at the front leaving Renshaw to drag the Manxman Cavendish up to 300 meters to go at which point "Cav" launched himself into orbit. It was all text book stuff and Cavendish notched up his third stage win this year for a total of seven in his career.

Barry Hoban's British record of eight stage wins is now looking in danger in 2009. For the contenders some paid attention on the run into the finish as Armstrong and Contador where in front of a split in the field. Others, including Brad Wiggins, lost themselves 15 seconds for not paying attention.

Tomorrow should be the same scenario with the return of the radios and the return of the sprinters.