Result: Thor Hushovd won the stage solo having been part of the day’s break. He put in a masterful display of descending to power clear of his breakaway companions to win a Tour de France stage for the sixth year in a row.

The overall contenders did nothing as they were waiting for tomorrow’s big mountain stage.

Here’s how it happened: It took almost 60km of frantic racing before a group of breakaway riders were allowed go clear. It was the biggest break of the Tour so far with ten riders including world champion Hushovd, veteran sprinter Alessandro Petacchi, winner of Stage Six Edvald Boasson Hagen and the man who has been in almost every breakaway so far, Jérémy Roy.

There was one major climb on the route, the Col d’Aubisque, the summit of which was a substantial 42.5km from the finish. The bunch seemed happy to let the break fight for the stage win amongst themselves as the gap went out to eight minutes.

Hushovd attacked at the foot of the climb but was caught and passed separately by both Roy and David Moncoutié. They all crested the summit of the Col d’Aubisque separately but Hushovd caught up with Moncoutié shortly afterward. The pair combined in their pursuit of Roy who had a lead of 1’45″ with 40km to go to the finish in Lourdes.

With just 3km remaining Hushovd left Moncoutié behind and thundered past Roy to win Garmin-Cervelo’s third stage of this year’s Tour.

The big G.C. contenders came across the line almost eight minutes behind as Thomas Voeckler hangs on to the yellow jersey.

The Big Winner: The Rainbow Jersey. Hushovd is primarily a classics rider and his main aim of this year was to win Paris-Roubaix back in April. Things didn’t pan out as he would have liked there, but having already spent a week in the yellow jersey, this stage win ensures he is now living up to his title of World Champion.

He is only the second world champion in the last 30 years to win a stage of the Tour de France after Oscar Freire in 2002.

The Big Loser: Jérémy Roy. He spent almost 90km out on his own at the front of the race and ended up being usurped by Hushovd agonisingly close to the finish. He has been in the break of the day more often than anyone else but has not been able to convert his opportunities into a stage win. The French are still awaiting their first stage win of this year’s Tour, although there is some consolation as he took over the lead in the King of the Mountains competition and he also won the day’s combativity prize.

What about the Irish? Nicolas Roche had a quiet day in the peloton as there was no action amongst the G.C. riders, although a late attack out of the bunch by Philippe Gilbert, who was in search of green jersey points, meant that the Belgian gained a bit of time on Roche and has now leapfrogged him in the overall standings.

Roche now sits in 11th place overall, down from 10th, and remains 4’57″ behind Thomas Voeckler.

So what happens tomorrow then? One more day in the Pyrenées with three huge mountains on the route as the Tour travels 168.5km and ends with a summit finish at Plateau de Beille. The Tour de France has finished here on four previous occasions, and on each of them the winner of the stage has gone on to win the Tour de France: Marco Pantani, Lance Armstrong (twice) and Alberto Contador.

The following day is a return to flatland which provides the major overall contenders with somewhat of a day off. As such, they should be willing to put in big efforts to eek out time gaps on their rivals on tomorrow’s Stage 14.