2012 Tour de France: Pierre Rolland makes it a French double – Bradley Wiggins strengthens his grip

Frenchman Pierre Rolland made it a double victory for France following Thomas Voeckler's win yesterday. Like Voeckler, Rolland was in the long escape of the day. He managed to drop his companions in the final climb to La Toussuire to win by 55 seconds from the very select group of five riders – Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Jurgen Van Den Broeck and France's youngest new Tour talent – Thibaut Pinot who came in second. The biggest loser of the day was Cadel Evans who cracked on the final climb, came in 11th and lost 1.27 to Wiggins.  

Although Sky rode a brilliant race it was a much less comfortable day for them than yesterday as there were more attacks. Evans attempted an attack on the Glandon but it was soon clear that it wasn't his day as he could keep the pace of his team mate Tejay Van Garderen and looked to be in difficulty when the attack was taken by the Yellow jersey group. Vincenzo Nibali and Jurgen Van Den Broeck attacked on the Toussuire climb. Initially it looked as though they might successfully put time into Wiggins as Froome appeared to blow, leaving Wiggins to try to catch them. However, Foome soon recovered and led Wiggins back to Nibali and Van Den Broeck. Froome even managed unwittingly  to drop Wiggins when he put in an attack once they had caught Nibali and Van Den Broeck but slowed when he realised what had happened. The attacks, however, proved to be fatal to Evans and Chris Froome is now up to second place overall.  

Stage Top 12:

    

 1.Pierre Rolland 

 2. Thibaut Pinot                    55 seconds

 3. Chris Froome                    55  

 4. Jurgen Van Den Broeck      57  

 5. Vincezo Nibali                   57  

 6. Bradley Wiggins                57  

 7. Chris Anker Sorensen      1.08

 8. Janez Brajkovic               1.58

 9. Vasili Kiryienka               2.13

10. Frank Schleck                2.23 

11. Cadel Evans                  2.23

12. Tejay Van Garderen       2.23

Overall top 10:

 1. Bradley Wiggins 

 2. Chris Froome                   2.05

 3. Vincenzo Nibali                 2.23

 4. Cadel Evans                     3.19

 5. Jurgen Van Den Broeck     4.48

 6. Haimar Zubeldia               6.15

 7. Tejay Van Garderen          6.57

 8. Janez Brajkovic                7.30

 9. Pierre Rolland                  8.31

10. Thibaut Pinot                  8.51

Other big losers today were Denis Menchov (overall 16.20 down on Wiggins), Maxime Monfort (17.41) and Nicolas Roche (10.49).

Race standings here.

Although there is still a long way to go Bradley Wiggins has undoubtedly greatly strengthened his grip on the Tour today. He, Chris Froome and Team Sky proving to be equal to all the attacks. 

2012 Tour de France: Stage 11 – showdown in the high mountains?

Today's short 148 kilometre stage from Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles through the Alps promises to be possibly the toughest one in this year's Tour and could well play a big role in who the eventual winner will be. It ought to be a big test for Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky to hold onto Bradley's Yellow Jersey. It is the only real Alpine stage in this year's race.  

Apart from the first 14.5K, the riders be climbing and descending all day. Climbing for 71.4K of the 148K. They start with the Col de la Madeleine (Hors Category) – at 25.3K the longest climb in this year's race. This is followed by the Col de Glandon and Col de la Croix de Fer (HC). Next is the Col de Mollard (3rd Cat). The stage ends with the 18K climb up to La Toussuire. It was La Toussuire that Floyd Landis famously cracked while in Yellow in the 2006 Tour. Link to the video of the 2006 stage can be found here on Steephill.TV. The following day a doped up Landis escaped and made up all the time he lost the day before – video here. Landis was subsequently disqualified and stripped of his Tour de France title.

Cadel Evans and Vincenzo Nibali must surely be looking to get time back on Wiggins today. I expect Jurgen Van den Broeck to show well again today. Expect to see some changes in position of the top 10 overall riders tonight.

It will be a difficult day for the non-climbers trying to make sure that they don't get eliminated from the race by finishing outside the time limit. 

Stage 11 reconnaissance with Daniel Lloyd here. 

Fabien Cancellara has abandoned the Tour to be with his wife, who is due to give birth very shortly.

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Latest news on Rémy Di Gregorio

Report from L'Equipe here. Apparently Rémy Di Gregorio had been injecting ozone enriched blood as well as injections of glucose. He was caught because he is said to have been buying products off the internet. Di Gregorio is alleged to have been advised by a 75-year naturopathe based in Marseille.  Di Gregorio denies doping. However, if true, all in all seems a remarkably dopey thing to have done!