July 14th is Bastille Day in France, and the Tour organisers didn't hand the riders a simple stage to relax and enjoy the celebrations on the national holiday. Today's stage was an undulating route from Chambery to Gap.

French team AG2R are based in Chambery, so they took the role of pacemakers at the front of the peloton as the bunch rolled through the neutral zone.

Attacks unsurprisingly came immediately, mostly from French riders looking for the honour of winning the stage on Bastille Day. However, none of these attacks stuck due to the immensely high pace of the peloton from the start.

Then there were two crashes in quick succession in either side of the first intermediate sprint of the day just 20 kilometers into the race, which included veteran cyclist Yaroslav Popovych of Team RadioShack and Garmin-Transition's sprinter Robbie Hunter, but everyone managed to get back up on their bikes and continue.

Alessandro Petacchi picked up the maximum six points in the intermediate sprint, as he moved ever closer to taking the green jersey, currently on the shoulders of Thor Hushovd.

37 km into the stage the first serious breakaway of the day started, including Sergio  Paulinho, Mario Aerts, Dries Devenyns and Vasil Kiryienka, followed by counter attackers Pierre Rolland and Maxime Bouet.

It quickly became apparent that the peloton weren't interested in chasing the escapees as they began to open up a lead that would reach over fourteen minutes, and it was to be a race between the six to the finish.

At 77 km in, Jerome Pineau outsprinted countryman Anthony Charteau for sixth place over the first climb of the day, meaning he reclaimed his lead at the top of the mountain classification by a single point.

At 35 km to the downhill finish at Gap, Maxime Bouet was sent backwards up the ascent of the Col du Noyer, and it seemed like the leading six had become five. However, it wasn't to be as Bouet put in a gutsy ride to get over the summit, as he clawed his way back to the leading bunch.

With just 15 km to the finish, the race to the line started with attacks coming from those looking to win the stage. It was Vasil Kiryienka of Caisse D'Epargne and Sergio Paulinho of Team RadioShack who managed to get the gap to the others, as it became a two-horse race between the pair who were looking to win their first ever stage of the Tour de France.

Aerts, Devenyns and Rolland were the next group on the road with the already struggling Maxime Bouet of AG2R being the last of the original six breakaway riders.

Kiryienka was the favourite to take the stage win with his track cycling ability, but it was Paulinho who was in the prime position on the wheel of the Belorussian heading up to the finish line.

Paulinho launched his attack and Kiryienka couldn't match his Portuguese competitor, who took the win by just a matter of centimetres in Team RadioShack's first win in their debut Tour. Dries Devenyns finished third.

Young Irishman Nicholas Roche attacked off the front of the bunch near the finish in an incredibly clever move which saw him lifted in the overall standings inside the top 15.

The peloton came in around fourteen minutes behind the winning pair, with Cavendish leading them home in the sprint for green jersey points and Petacchi picking up the final point.

Standings after Stage Ten

1.    SCHLECK A.            43h 35' 41"
2.    CONTADOR A.             00' 41"
3.    SANCHEZ S.               02' 45"
4.    MENCHOV D.              02' 58"
5.    VAN DEN BROECK J.     03' 31"
6.    LEIPHEIMER L.             03' 59"
7.    GESINK R.                  04' 22"
8.    SANCHEZ L.                04' 41"
9.    RODRIGUEZ OLIVER J.   05' 08"
10.   BASSO I.                  05' 09"