French cyclist David Moncoutie won Thursdays Tour de France stage on his country's most important day of the year.
Bastille Day in France means the pressure to win a stage is on the French riders. And since most of those French riders are far down the list in the overall classification, the pressure was off Lance Armstrong and the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.
And on this Bastille Day, the sprinters for the green jersey also battled after points leader Tom Boonen retired just before the stage because of injuries sustained in an accident on Wednesday in Stage 11.
Three Frenchmen joined a breakaway about 40 miles into the 116-mile stage between Briançon – Digne-les-Bains on Thursday. The stage features several climbs, but nothing like the Alpine summits of the day before.
Discovery let other teams handle the pace-setting at the front of the chasing peloton. After two days of hard work, the team needed a break. Also, they had to regroup after losing one of the best pace-setters, Manuel Beltran, to an accident early in the race.
In addition to the three Frenchmen in the breakaway, sprinters Thor Hushovd and Stuart O'Grady were in the group. trying to gain sprint points to win the green jersey.
Moncoutie attacked the group with 22 miles left, which included a climb up the Col de L'orme. The Cofidis rider with 13 lifetime wins finished in Digne-les-Bains nearly a minute ahead of Sandy Casar, another Frenchman, who won a sprint to the finish against five other riders, which include yet another Frenchman, Patrice Halgand.
Thor Hushovd finished 3 minutes later, but won enough points to take the lead in the green jersey competition.
All this action took place off the radar screen of Armstrong and the other leaders, as the general classification battle for the yellow jersey remained unchanged.
Full results are available at CyclingNews.
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