Jens?

Jens Voigt can always be counted on to get into a winning break or two at the Tour. Last year he outclassed his breakaway partner, Oscar Piererro, at the line in a two-up sprint to finish off the now infamous stage that ended up putting Pierero into yellow. Today he found his way into the day’s big break and, when it disintegrated on one of the final climbs, remained with the final group of five riders. But it was not to be for Jens today. Instead, it was a day for the French, as Cedric Vassuer and Sandy Casar finished 1-2 at the finish line in Marseille, while Jens had to settle for 5th place.

Matt’s guy Sebastian Chavanel brought home the peloton to win the sprint for 12th place. Boonen followed at 13th, helping Hal to get back onto the scoreboard once again. Hunter, Zabel, and Hushovd were right there as well, giving us a taste of how the battle for the green jersey is likely to play out over the next two days as the balance tips back in favour of the sprinters.

With Voigt on their teams, it was a third consecutive good day for Dave L and Jonny G. But it was Johnny S, on the strength of Casar and Flecha, who took the 2007 FGBC TdF Pool stage win. With a couple of flat stages to come in the next two days, Matt has chance to pad his lead before the first long ITT on Saturday. Here we will find out, once and for all, whether the Chicken is a legitimate GC threat. I still don't think he is.

Lucky we don’t live in Germany. After receiving news that German rider Patrick Sinkiewitz has tested positive for testosterone, they made good on their threat to boycott the Tour if there was more bad doping news. No coverage of the TdF in Germany today. Dankeschön, Patrick.

We welcome a new player to the 2007 FGBC TdF Pool. James has gotten a team in. He claimed not to know a thing about what has transpired so far. So I gave him the list of riders and my VeloNews Tour Guide and let him pick away. His picks confirm his confession of cluelessness. So I've let him get in on the fun. Welcome, James, to a tight race for the final podium spot.

Stage 10 results:

1) Johnny S - 146
2) David L - 85
3) Jonny G - 82
4) David S - 76
5) Matt - 20
6) Cheryl - 9
7) Hal - 8
8) Chris - 6
9) Rachel - 5
10) Jonny B - 4
11) James - 4
12) Charlene - 0
13) Vic - 0

General Classification after stage 10:

1) Matt - 1555
2) Jonny G - 1103
3) David L - 868
4) James - 824
5) Vic - 823
6) Chris - 758
7) Hal - 734
8) Cheryl - 654
9) Rachel - 509
10) Charlene - 493
11) Johnny S - 458
12) Jonny B - 347
13) David S - 190

Still waiting for a report from Jonny N about the honorary captain’s appearance in Seattle. In the meantime, here’s a video of a recent Q&A session he did for the folks at Google:



And one more time with Marcus Burghardt's canine encounter, this time with moving pictures:



OTT: Arctic Monkeys, Brainstorm