Italy's Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas) won a hard fought sprint in Autun on Thursday as Tour de France fans saw three pre-race favorites struggling to catch up to the peloton after crashes along the route.
Fabian Cancellara held onto the leader's yellow jersey for yet another day as he raced at the front of the bunch after sweeping up a breakaway on the 113-mile route from Chablis to Autun.
The biggest scare came for the Astana team as both Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Kloden hit the ground during the stage.
Kloden ended up in a ditch after a collision about 45 miles from the finish. Then Vinokourov suffered a rough crash with just 14 miles left in the race. Six teammates waited and escorted Vinokourov back to the rear of the race.
His elbow bleeding and shorts torn, Vino kept driving over the final hill on his own, picking up stragglers from the final climb and finishing losing only 1-minute and 20 seconds. At one point he was more than 2 minutes behind leaders on the road.
The cyclist from Kazahkstan will have to make up that time in the mountain stages this weekend to get back into contention. After the race, he had dropped to 81st, 2:10 behind Cancellara.
Vino injured his knees and Kloden slightly fractured his tailbone in their falls. Kloden, in second place overall, is a questionable starter for Friday's stage, says VeloNews.
Team CSC's Carlos Sastre, another pre-race favorite, fell behind during the race but was able to catch up to the peloton.
Even though Cancellara said he wouldn't protect the yellow jersey, the Team CSC cyclist found himself at the front of the peloton at the finish to ride in yellow another day. In fact, he chased down a Discovery Channel rider on the downhill outside of Autun; both were caught by the peloton when they ran off the road on a hairpin turn.
Earlier, it looked like the Swiss cyclist might lose the lead to Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel, who attacked about 15 miles from the start and formed another breakaway.
The Cofidis rider, who spent most of Wednesday in a breakaway, kept driving a four-man group that comprised Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux), Giampaolo Cheula (Barloworld) and William Bonnet (Crédit Agricole).
Although he was swept up on the last hill, Chavanel can be consoled by winning the King of Mountain jersey for his efforts. He takes it from teammate Stephane Auge.
Erik Zabel, the 37-year-old veteran now on Milram, captured the green points jersey from Tom Boonen.
The 25-year-old stage winner, Pozzato, won Milan-San Remo earlier this year in 2006 (thanks Thomas!).
The Top 10 are:
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC
2. Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana
3. Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Liquigas
4. David Millar (GBr) Saunier Duval
5. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel
6. Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Discovery Channel
7. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Caisse d'Epargne
8. Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Euskaltel
9. Thomas Dekker (Ned) Rabobank
10. Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux
Pre-race favories
2. Andres Kloden (Ger) T-Mobile — 33 seconds behind
15. Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor – Lotto — 55 seconds
18. Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne — 57 seconds
22. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel — 1:00 minute
23. Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank — 1:00
25. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne — 1:03
36. Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance — 1:09
47. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC — 1:16
48. Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC — 1:17
81. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana — 2:10
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