Just a point separating José Joaquín Rojas from points leadership, after coming 5th in a day where Movistar Team lost Kiryienka José Joaquín Rojas came up a nail short to take his regularity leader's green jersey in the 2011 Tour de France. The Spaniard from Movistar Team was 5th at the finish in Lisieux, just before the current leader, Belgium's Philippe Gilbert (OLO), who also followed Rojas through the day's intermediate sprint, where the Spanish champion took second within the bunch. Gilbert is keeping the maillot vert, but now with only a point's margin over Rojas, who will have another good chance to take back the coveted jersey at Châteauroux's arrival.
The stage went marked by really bad weather conditions, which caused again several crashes that the telephone squad’s riders could avoid, the group splitting with 50k as the two injured riders from Movistar Team, Andrey Amador and Beñat Intxausti, got there due to their injuries still healing from the crash on stage 1. Even further back, riding solo right from the feed zone, was Vasil Kiryienka. The bad day for the Belarusian rider ended with his participation in this year’s Tour was he came over the line more than half an hour after the winner, Edvald Boasson Hagen (SKY), thus out of time in a race where Movistar Team will have to go on with only eight riders. Tomorrow, after the long 160k transfer to the hotel near Le Mans, the Blue squad will be looking again for the green jersey in a predictable sprint finish.