The Tour de France heads to the mountains tomorrow. Today, the sprinters had their day. Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) led the field across the line in rain-soaked Lavaur to take his third stage win of this year’s Tour, his 18th in total. With the mass finish, the general classification stayed relatively untouched, and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) heads to the Pyrenees in yellow.

“Today was again a nervous race because of the rain,” said Andy Schleck. “The finale was fast as there wasn’t too much climbing in the end.”

It was a rainy start in Blaye-les-Mines. The field stamped the passports of six riders who went clear ten kilometers into the 165.5 kilometer stage. Two categorized climbs and the intermediate sprint provided a bit of excitement in an otherwise straightforward, albeit wet and windy, stage. An HTC-Highroad-led peloton caught the break two kilometers before the line, and the sprinters' teams massed at the front to set up for the bunch sprint.

“It rained on and off throughout the day,” Andy said. “We must have had four or five rain showers. Every time we would have some relief, we would think ‘Yes, okay. Now, it’s done.’ and then we’d turn around the corner to find it was raining again.”

Leopard Trek protected its leaders from the perils of rainy racing.

“I was perfectly piloted by Fabian [Cancellara],” noted Andy. “Stuart did the same thing for Fränk [Schleck]. Joost also did a good job up there to help with our positioning. In the last ten kilometers, we were very much at the front.”

Fränk sits in fourth, three seconds behind third-placed Cadel Evans (BMC). Brother Andy remains just behind in fifth place, an additional eight seconds down. Jakob Fuglsang slots into the final spot on the top-ten giving Leopard Trek an important “third card” to play in the mountains.

Operation Yellow reaches new heights tomorrow as the mountains loom and the first showdown between the overall contenders begins in earnest. The field will tackle the ascent of narrow roads that wind up to the Hourquette d’Ancizan followed by the Tourmalet from the La Mongie-side. Off the Tourmalet, the race heads straight onto the mountaintop finish on Luz-Ardiden.

“I’m happy that these nervous kinds of stages are over and that we can now hit the mountains,” Andy said. “It’s a sense of relief to change to the small ring. We’re in our terrain now.”