Risks pay off as Dessel takes Tour lead
The Frenchman, riding for the AG2R Prevoyance team, also snatched the lead in the King of the Mountains standings, his 54 points on the day’s three climbs handing him the polka dot jersey as well as the prized yellow.
Mercado was named as the most aggressive rider for the stage, and took victory on the day after a thrilling sprint finish over the last 200m.
Spaniard Inigo Landaluze was third on the day for the Euskaltel team, 56 seconds behind the leading pair, with another minute and a half back to Cofidis’s Cristian Moreni and Cristophe Rinero of Saunier Duval.
Tour Mediterranean winner Dessel becomes the first rider since Richard Virenque in 2003 to hold the yellow and polka dot jerseys simultaneously, and leads Mercado by two minutes 34 seconds in the overall standings.
He said: “Today I look some risks and they paid off. The same happened to (stage eight winner) Sylvain Calzati the other day and now it’s my turn. What a result for me and the team. It’s fantastic.”
His AG2R team manager Vincent Lavenu added: “It’s great, especially for Cyril who’s been on the Tour for several years. It’s going to be hard to keep it [the yellow jersey], and we’re not going to get carried away. It’s already great that we have it. We’ll see how things go tomorrow and judge accordingly.”
Previous leader Serhiy Honchar of T-Mobile lies third overall, with Cristian Moreni fourth ahead of two racers expected to be among the contenders come the end of the Tour, Floyd Landis and Michael Rogers.
Landaluze, Patrik Sinkewitz, Andreas Kloden and Vladimir Karpets complete the top 10.
T-Mobile manager Olaf Ludwig said: “We wanted to defend the yellow jersey if possible but in the end we weren’t involved in the 14-man [breakaway] group and it was too difficult.
“We didn’t expect Honchar to drop back, but it was not ideal conditions today. We couldn’t achieve what we wanted, but it’s not the end of the world.”
Tour of Austria champion Mercado was delighted after his stage win, and said: “It was pretty complicated — there are a lot of ups and downs near the end, but I just gave everything I had in the last kilometre. Each [stage] win in the Tour de France is etched on your memory, and winning the stage is fantastic.”
Mercado was also second to Dessel in two of the climb sections to earn 45 points in the King of the Mountains standings.
Credit Agricole’s Jimmy Engouvent withdrew early in the stage.
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