After that a very large group of 17 riders forms who manage to ride away almost 2 minutes in front of the peloton, the most important riders in this group are — Tom Boonen, wearing the yellow jersey, Pavel Padrnos, Antonio Flecha, Axel Merckx, Thor Hushovd, Patrick Sinkewitz and Philippe Gilbert. However, the peloton does not want to let them go, mainly influenced by the teams and . Three less important riders manage to break away from the leading group and when the peloton catches the other 14, they decide to let the three go. Those three are Anthony Geslin, Florent Brard the current French national champion, and Magnus Bäckstedt. They get caught just four kilometers before the finish line and so the sprinters can have another go at the stage victory. Robbie McEwen wins the sprint by a big margin after excellent work by his teammate Gert Steegmans. Robbie takes his third stage win in this tour and his eleventh overall.