• Tour de France, Stage 10

Paulinho hands stage win to Radioshack

Sergio Paulinho had enough in the tank to beat Vasil Kiryienka in a sprint finish © Getty Images

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The French were denied a victory on Bastille Day, but Radioshack finally got something to cheer about as Sergio Paulinho claimed Stage 10 of the Tour de France.

Lance Armstrong's bid for the yellow jersey was blown apart on Sunday, leaving the Radioshack team with only stage victories to aim for. And Paulinho provided the perfect tonic by holding off Vasil Kiryienka in the sprint finish into Gap.

An early breakaway consisting of Paulinho, Kiryienka, Mario Aerts and Dries Devenyns was allowed to drift off the front by the peloton. They were joined by Pierre Rolland and Maxime Bouet and they built up a huge lead.

It became apparent once the breakway had cleared the Cote de Laffrey with their lead intact that they would stay away for the entire day.

The peloton showed no desire to chase them down, with the Andy Schleck's Saxo Bank squad content to control things at a distance of 12 minutes.

Paulinho and Kiryienka attacked with 13kms to go and their dig up the final uncategorised climb blew the other four away. Paulinho kicked with 300 metres to go and he dashed three bike lengths clear and though Kiryienka was making ground, the Portuguese held on at the line.

Nicolas Roche went off the front of the peloton with 10kms to go and took 1.20 back on general classification, while Mark Cavendish won the bunch sprint to the line.

There was no change in the general classification as Schleck retained his lead thanks to some excellent stewarding from his Saxo Bank team-mates.

Stage Ten - Chambery to Gap
1 Sergio Paulinho - Radioshack - 5:10:56
2 Vasil Kiryienka - Caisse d'Epargne - Same time
3 Dries Devenyns - Quick Step - +1.29
4 Pierre Rolland - Bbox Bouygues Telecom - +1.29
5 Mario Aerts - Omega Pharma-Lotto - +1.33
6 Maxime Bouet - AG2R La Mondiale - +3:20
7 Nicolas Roche - AG2R La Mondiale +12:58
8 Remi Paurioil - Cofidis - +13:57
9 Mark Cavendish - HTC Columbia - +14:19
10 Alessandro Petacchi - Lampre-Farnese - +14:19

General Classification after Stage Ten
1 Andy Schleck - Saxo Bank - 49:00:56
2 Alberto Contador - Astana - +0:00:41
3 Samuel Sanchez - Euskaltel - +0:02:45
4 Denis Menchov - Rabobank - 0:02:58
5 Jurgen Van Den Broeck - Omega Pharma-Lotto - 0:03:31
6 Levi Leipheimer - Radioshack - +0:03:59
7 Robert Gesink - Rabobank - +0:04:22
8 Luis León Sánchez - Caisse d'Epargne - +0:04:41
9 Joaquin Rodriguez - Katusha - +0:05:08
10 Ivan Basso - Liquigas-Doimo - +0:05:09
13 Nicolas Roche - AG2R La Mondiale +06:23
17 Bradley Wiggins - Sky - +0:07:18
18 Cadel Evans - BMC - +0:07:48
31 Lance Armstrong - Radioshack - 0:15:54

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