The beginning of the stage was marked by numerous attacks by small and large groups, including Sylvain Chavanel several times . Due to the high initial pace, none of these groups was initially able to break away. Another fall occurred, but the fallen continued their journey. On the other hand, Andreas Klöden, weakened by two falls on previous stages, gave up. Jegor Silin , Anthony Delaplace and Niki Terpstra were able to stay a few kilometers ahead, but were also caught again. The first mountain classification of the day was finally won by Jelle Vanendert .
Then Jérémy Roy attacked , followed by a few other drivers, creating a top group of ten. This included Thor Hushovd , Edvald Boasson Hagen , Alessandro Petacchi and Maarten Tjallingii , among others . Due to the numerous attacks, the first hour of the race was driven very quickly again. Meanwhile, Lars Boom and Vladimir Issaitschew also finished the tour. Roy won the second mountain classification. In the intermediate sprint it was Boasson Hagen who crossed the line first. The field reached the sprint more than four minutes behind, with José Joaquín Rojas prevailing against Mark Cavendish and getting most of the points still to be awarded. The group's lead continued to grow.
On the ascent to Col d'Aubisque , Hushovd launched an attack, which caused the group to fall apart. Only Roy caught up with Hushovd. They were followed by David Moncoutié and Boasson Hagen, a few seconds behind . There were also attacks in the field led by the Europcar team and a chasing group formed made up of Bauke Mollema , Maxime Bouet and Mickaël Delage , the latter later falling back. At the front, Roy was able to break away from Hushovd, who was later overtaken by Moncoutié. At the end of the former top group, Dmitri Fofonow lost touch with his nine colleagues. In the mountain classification at Aubisque, Roy was still in front and got the 20 mountain points, with which he secured the dotted jersey . Moncoutié followed, just under a minute behind, and Hushovd about two minutes behind. Vladimir Gusev came fourth . Behind them Boasson Hagen, Lars Bak and Jérôme Pineau formed a group of three. Fofonov was removed from the field before the summit. Even at the unrated summit of the Col du Soulor , which was crossed behind the Aubisque, the order did not change.
On the long descent from Col du Soulor, Hushovd drove back to Moncoutié and both set out to pursue Roy together. Philippe Gilbert attacked in the field . Hushovd and Moncoutié continued to catch up with Roy. A few kilometers from the finish, Hushovd attacked his companion on a small incline and bumped into Roy at the top, whom he ultimately also left behind. Hushovd won the stage by a few seconds. Behind him, Moncoutié had also overtaken Roy and finished second before him. Gilbert finally crossed the finish line in tenth place and thus received a few important points in the ranking for the green jersey. Rojas, who crossed the finish line with the smaller peloton over seven minutes behind, won the sprint for twelfth place and thus also made up a few points on Cavendish. Even Thomas Voeckler kept the connection to the peloton and was his yellow jersey defend again.
Mountain ratings
Côte de Cuqueron Category 3 after 43.5 km over 265 m 1.5 km at 8.1%
^ Diary of the stage. (No longer available online.) July 15, 2011, archived from the original on July 17, 2011 ; Retrieved July 15, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.letour.fr
Andreas Klöden ( TRS ): Task during the stage