Today was the big day - cobblestones!  And while some riders did in fact wipe out - Franck Schleck broke his collarbone and had to withdraw - overall it was a good racing day.  Thor Hushovd exorcized the frustration of not being able to sprint yesterday (after the peloton decided to go easy) by blasting out front to take the stage and the green jersey, and Sylvain Chavanel suffered several untimely mechanicals and relinquished the yellow jersey back to Fabian Cancellara.

The real battle among the GC contenders was pretty interesting; Cadel Evans had a great day, and now leads among those considered capable of winning the GC, and Alberto Contador had a good day too, not only surviving but picking up time on Lance Armstrong and Ivan Basso.  Cancellara paced Andy Schleck to a strong finish, and Alexander Vinokourov had a strong day, leading out Contador and ending up high up on GC himself.  Wow!

Tomorrow we all relax and have a "normal" field sprint.  I bet the peloton takes it easy, there are a lot of tired and bruised riders after the first four days...

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