The dream continues for Brit Mark Cavendish after he captured his third stage win of this year's event with a confident burst to the finish line at Narbonne.
It wasn't the ideal start to Stage 12 with the entire Saunier Duval team withdrawn from the race thanks to Riccardo Ricco's failed drug test for EPO, which looks set to overshadow Le Tour yet again.
An early breakaway was reeled in and Barloworld's Baden Cooke crashed as the riders made their way from Lavelenet with King of the Mountains leader David de la Fuente a notable absentee after the Ricco furore.
Cooke was eventually forced to abandon, leaving last year's surprise package with just four fit riders, before Arnaud Gerard of Francaise des Jeux and Cofidis' Samuel Dumoulin attacked the peloton at 36km.
Dumoulin led Gerard over the top of the only climb of the day at Col du Camperie with the duo ekeing out a lead of just under four minutes from the peloton that was led over by Gerolsteiner's Sebastian Lang.
Gerard then reversed the order to claim the maximum sprint points at Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet, leaving green jersey hopeful Oscar Freire to mop up the rest at the head of the chasing pack.
Alejandro Valverde overcame a mechanical problem to rejoin the peloton before Juan José Oroz of the Euskaltel team launched an offensive from the bunch to make it three in the lead group.
Team Columbia and Milram joined forces to haul in the leading trio with Caisse d'Epargne sitting just behind the head of the peloton, surrounding the yellow jersey of Cadel Evans.
Dumoulin tried a cheeky break of his own, only to be reeled back in by the other two, but he did claim the remaining sprint of the day at Thezan-de-Corbieres from Gerard and Oroz.
The peloton soon broke down the trio's lead with six kilometres to go leaving Columbia to lead out Cavendish for his third Tour victory of this year's race from Sebastien Chavanel and Gert Steegmans.
After yet another joyous day for the Brit, the peloton move onto a stage from Narbonne to Nimes this Friday which encompasses three climbs and two sprints where Evans will hope to retain le maillot jaune again.
