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Attacking the HIll
Once all of the members of the early break had been caught, the job for Cannondale was to go up the penultimate climb of the day, the Cote de Maron, as fast as possible. Their plan was to drop as many sprinters as possible in hopes of getting Peter Sagan his first stage victory in this Tour de France. While he has an 80 point lead in the Maillot Vert competition, he as yet to be the first wheel across the line. Other teams had other ideas, you can count on Team Europcar to be aggressive, most particularly their team leader, Thomas Voeckler. He got a quick gab on the lower slopes of the small hill, checking over his shoulder to see if their was any reaction to his attack.