The 10th stage of the Tour de France 2016 was held on July 12, 2016 after the first rest day of the tour, with 193 riders at the start. The stage led over 197 kilometers from Escaldes-Engordany in Andorra to Revel . There was a mountain classification in the 3rd and 1st category as well as an intermediate sprint in Aigues-Vives after 122.5 kilometers.
There were a few attacks on the ascent to Port d'Envalira , which began immediately after the start, but the field didn't let anyone leave at first. Finally, Rui Costa (LAM) was able to pull away , behind the Portuguese a chasing group slowly formed. After Costa secured the mountain classification and with it the souvenir Henri Desgrange , the outliers came together in the descent and were slowly able to gain a lead over the peloton.
Peter Sagan, aiming for an intermediate sprint and a stage win, won 20 points in Aigues-Vives for the green jersey, followed by Matthews and Caruso. After that, the pace in the field was increased again significantly with the help of the teams IAM and Direct Énergie, so that the outliers quickly lost time. They held against it, and finally Peter Sagan attacked, thus breaking up the leading group, in which only seven drivers were now represented in the front: Matthews, Sagan, Impey, Durbridge, Dumoulin, Van Avermaet and Boasson Hagen. The pursuit has been given up in the field. The lead grew back to over seven minutes.
In the last climb to the Côte de Saint-Ferréol, Daryl Impey tried to drive away several times, but Sagan closed the gap again and again. Meanwhile, Durbridge was falling behind. After further attacks by Impey and Boasson Hagen, Greg Van Avermaet finally opened the sprint on the home straight, but was over-sprinted by Matthews, Sagan and Boasson Hagen, who reached the finish in that order. The peloton arrived about 9:30 minutes behind.
For Michael Matthews it was the first Tour stage win after he had already been successful at the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España . Peter Sagan collected enough points to overtake Mark Cavendish (DDD) in the points classification . Sagan was also the racing driver who attacked very often right from the start and initiated the escape groups. For this he was voted the most combative driver of the day. In the team standings, the BMC Racing Team took the lead again. There were no changes in the other classifications or the top ranks in the overall standings.
Scoring
Intermediate sprint in Aigues-Vives after 122.5 km at 411 m
