Tour de France Stage 10 - Cambo-les-Bains to Pau

Continuing with the spa village theme, today's Tour de France route begins at Cambo-les-Bains, a lovely Basque spa town ideally situated between the Atlantic coast and the Pyrenees Mountains.

The day's riding ends in Tour de France staple stopover Pau, which is celebrating its 60th turn as a tour stop. There's a reason Le Tour loves Pau. It's situated next to the climbs of the Pyrenees, yet offers the amenities of a small city. This is the ideal destination if you wish to participate in outdoors adventures, be it kayaking, climbing or cycling. It is also just a short distance from Tarbes, a similar charming Pyrenean city. Also a few minutes away is Lourdes, the second most popular tourism city in all of France. It attracts five million pilgrims annually from throughout the globe to the cave where a peasant girl had several visions of the Virgin Mary.

Today's results:

This is the second time that Spaniard Juan Miguel Mercado has won a stage of the Tour de France. Cyril Dessel will visit the podium twice today despite finishing a close second in the 10th stage. The AG2R rider is the new leader of both the general (yellow jersey) and climbing (polka dotted jersey) classifications.

The top 5 in Stage 10:

1. MERCADO Juan Miguel (AGR, Spain)
2. DESSEL Cyril (A2R, France)
3. LANDALUZE Inigo (EUS, Spain)
4. MORENI Cristian (COF, Italy)
5. RINERO Christophe (SDV, France)

The top 5 in general classification:

1. DESSEL Cyril (A2R, France)
2. MERCADO Juan Miguel (AGR, Spain)
3. HONCHAR Serhiy (TMO, Ukraine)
4. MORENI Cristian (COF, Italy)
5. LANDIS Floyd (PHO, USA)

Keep up-to-date on all the tour action with my main Tour de France 2006 page.

Photo: Chateau de Pau, copyright Pau Tourisme