French bank denied on Bastille Day

Paulinho was part of a six-man breakaway early in the day which was whittled down to just him and Belorusian Vasil Kiryienka in the final 13km - and he then outsprinted his Caisse d'Epargne rival at the line.

Acacio da Silva was the last Portuguese rider to win a stage in Le Tour when he triumphed in the 1989 opener.

All the General Classification contenders stayed out of trouble, with Andy Schleck remaining in yellow, but Quick Step's Jerome Pineau reclaimed the polka dot king of the mountains jersey by gaining a point on Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) on the first climb of the day - the category one Cote de Laffrey.

The attacks came thick and fast right from the start of the 179km trek from Chambery, but all were quickly swallowed up until about 40km in when Paulinho attacked with Mario Aerts (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step) and Kiryienka.

They were soon joined by French pair Pierre Rolland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) and Maxime Bouet (Ag2r-La Mondiale), but the effort those two put into getting into that lead group eventually caught up with them in the closing stages and it is now five years since France's last Bastille Day winner, David Moncoutie of Cofidis, was crowned.

With none of the breakaway pack being in GC contention, added to the last two brutal stages in the Alps, the peloton was happy to let the group of six attack and they soon built up a lead that consistently bounced between 10-12 minutes until the finish.

In the last 15km, Paulinho and Kiryienka emerged as the clear front runners as they broke away from their rivals.

They played a cat and mouse affair up until the final sprint, with Paulinho cleverly forcing Kiryienka to lead it out before bursting past him towards the line.

It looked like Paulinho had the win in the bag, but a late burst from Kiryienka saw him nearly nick it on the line - but Paulinho won it by a nose after finishing the course in five hours, 10 minutes and 56 seconds.

Devenyns then won the sprint for third ahead of Aerts, 1:29 after the leaders had crossed, with a clearly shattered Rolland coming in fifth.

Bouet dropped back in the final 20km to finish sixth on his own, while his team-mate Nicolas Roche burst out of the peloton in the final 5km to pick up a useful 1:21 on that group which saw him jump up from 17th to 13th on General Classification.

A late attack from Remi Pauriol gave a bit of airtime to an otherwise woeful Cofidis team as he finished eighth, while Mark Cavendish won the peloton sprint ahead of Alessandro Petacchi and the green jersey of Thor Hushovd.

Source: eurosport.co.uk