Today’s 225 km stage from Beuvais to Caen was dominated by the breakaway of two riders that began 20 km from the start and continued up until just the last few kilometers from the finish. Normally, the peloton catches up to the break much sooner, and for a time it looked like the break might just have a chance to succeed all the way to finish.

Samuel Dumoulin (FRA / AG2R) and Bjorn Schroder (GER / Milram) broke away along with several other riders at the 20 km mark and finally left the rest of the riders after 39 km. From there, the two helped each other throughout the entire stage (including four category 4 climbs). They were finally caught with under 5 km to the finish line and then the teams battled it out trying to get their sprinters into position for the finish.

Just before the line, all of the sprinters were battling it out on the left side of the road while Rabobank’s Oscar Freire (ESP) shot up the right-hand side of the road all by himself to steal the stage victory from the rest of the sprinters. Looking back at the overhead video, it looked like Freire put on afterburners and that the rest of the riders were standing still. It was quite an amazing athletic accomplishment and Freire’s glee was all over his face when he realized he had done it. Second and third place in the stage went to yellow jersey wearer Tom Boonen (BEL) and Inaki Isasi (ESP) respectively.

At the end of today’s stage, here are the standings in the general classification:

1. Tom Boonen (BEL) Quickstep
2. Michael Rogers (AUS) T-Mobile at 13″
3. Oscar Freire (ESP) Rabobank at 17″
4. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery at 17″
5. Thor Hushovd (NOR) Credit Agricole at 19″
6. Robbie McEwen (AUS) Davitamon-Lotto at 24″
7. Paolo Salvoldelli (ITA) Discovery at 27″
8. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak at 28″
9. Vladimir Karpets (RUS) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears at 29″
10. Sergei Gontchar (UKR) T-Mobile at 29″