At the 9 km mark and after a few attempted escapes, an eight man break, including team leaders David Millar and Daniele Bennati, got away, but their lead was restricted for a long time to about two minutes by the peloton. The pace was being made by the "virtual" leader's team Discovery and Predictor-Lotto, despite the fact that no threat to the GC was posed: Jens Voigt, 34th overall and over an hour behind Alberto Contador, was the best placed man in the break. Caisse d'Epargne made the pace in earnest for a while. It was thought at the time that they wanted to try to keep their second position in the team classification, but their directeur sportif said the next day that they simply wanted to try to win the stage. The move was extremely unpopular within the peloton, with riders like Tom Boonen and Cadel Evans speaking up about it.