Greig Leach

Wout Poels jumped out of the peloton at the base of the category one climb of the Cote de Peille. He quickly crossed the forty five second gap to the lead group. Just as quickly the drops them as well. The only one of the early break that was able to stay with Dutchman was Oliver Naesen (Ag2r-Citroen), but even he was dropped by Poels after a couple of switch backs on the way to the summit. Poels would have had a better go of it had at least a couple of riders been able to hold onto his wheel. That and the fact that the day started with only a twelve second gap between the riders in first and second place meant that the racing was going to be intense behind.