The riders face another relatively flat ride to Montpellier on Thursday as the race winds west towards the Pyrenees

Denmark's Michael Rasmussen is still in the yellow jersey with a lead of two minutes 35 seconds in the overall standings

Alejandro Valverde is second in the standings with Iban Mayo four seconds behind as the riders start on the 182.5km stage

Philippe Gilbert, Fabian Wegmann, Xavier Florencio and Dimitri Fofonov form the second - more successful - break of the day

Alexandre Vinokourov and Astana pick up the pace in the pack and the peloton starts to stretch out

Britain's David Millar, meanwhile, completes a massive effort to hunt down and catch the lead break

The peloton splits into two, with Christophe Moreau slipping backwards as the other group closes on the breakaway

The pack set a furious pace and catch up with the breakaway with 34km to go, while Moreau's group slips further behind

The narrow bends running into the finish claim several victims but the leaders shoot through for a sprint to the line

South African Hunter pulls off a strong finish to clinch a stage win for Barloworld ahead of Fabian Cancellara in Montpellier

Moreau's earlier crash costs him dear and he drops out of the top 10 in the standings, finishing three minutes behind

Tom Boonen is back in the green jersey despite coming off on the last stretch, while Rasmussen holds on to the yellow