The route ran in a south-easterly and south-easterly direction through the Meurthe-et-Moselle , Vosges and Haute-Saône departments . In the first third the profile was mostly flat before the riders reached the Vosges. Following the valley of the Vologne , they reached Gérardmer ( 762 m ), where the intermediate sprint was held. After the first mountain classification, the Col de Grosse Pierre ( 954 m ), the route crossed the valleys of the Moselotte and Moselle . This was followed by the second mountain classification on the Col du Mont de Fourche ( 620 m ) and two further, uncategorized climbs. After passing Plancher-les-Mines , the riders had to tackle the final ascent to Planche des Belles Filles, which was on the tour's program for the first time.
Race course
182 riders started this stage after eight had not started due to the consequences of the mass fall from the previous day. After eleven kilometers, 19 drivers tried to clear the field, but were soon caught up again. A little later, seven drivers broke out of the field. They were the French Cyril Gautier and Christophe Riblon , the Swiss Michael Albasini , the Spaniard Luis León Sánchez , the Dane Chris Anker Sørensen , the Slovak Martin Velits and the Kazakhs Dmitri Fofonow . The lead of this group leveled off at just under six minutes.
Gautier won the intermediate sprint in Gérardmer; Fastest in the field, who was 4:50 minutes behind at this point, was Peter Sagan . The mountain price points at the Col de Grosse Pierre and at the Col du Mont de Fourche were both won by Sørensen before Sánchez. Due to the increased pace of the Garmin , BMC and Sky teams , the lead of the outliers decreased continuously. With 20 kilometers to go, it was two minutes. Five kilometers before the end of the stage, in the lower part of the final climb, Sørensen was the last outlier.
In the final ascent, the field split into numerous small groups. Several prominent drivers could no longer follow the pace of the leading group, including Ivan Basso , Fränk Schleck , Andreas Klöden and overall leader Fabian Cancellara . At the head of the race, Bradley Wiggins' Team Sky kept the pace high. On the last, particularly steep kilometer, five drivers were still in the lead; besides Wiggins also Cadel Evans , Chris Froome , Vincenzo Nibali and Rein Taaramäe . Froome was the first to cross the finish line, just ahead of Evans and Wiggins, while Nibali and Taaramäe fell back a little.
As Cancellara finished 1:52 minutes behind (20th place), Wiggins took over the top of the overall standings, while Froome received the dotted jersey .
Scoring
Intermediate sprint in Gérardmer after 103.5 km at 676 m
