Tour de France:Ireland's Nicolas Roche continued his fine debut showing as he finished runner-up to Russian Sergie Ivanov in today's 14th stage between Colmar and Besancon, his highest finish and second top ten in the race.
The 25-year-old came in 16 seconds behind Ivanov in a bunched sprint at the end of the 199km stage, improving his overall standing by six places up to 39th position.
The AG2R rider was also part of a fine team performance that enabled Rinaldo Nocentini to keep hold of the yellow jersey by the skin of his teeth.
American George Hincapie made a brave attempt to oust the Italian from the top of the general classification but came up just short.
Team Columbia’s Hincapie was part of a 12-man breakaway group that dominated the 14th stage of the Tour and he finished eighth behind Ivanov.
It looked at one point that Nocentini, who stayed in the peloton all day, was going to relinquish the maillot jaune but his AG2R team pulled out all the stops in the final few kilometres to keep their man top of the standings.
Nocentini now sits five seconds ahead of Hincapie, who is second having bumped Astana duo Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong down a place.
Frenchman Christophe Le Mevel, who was part of the breakaway group, moves into fifth place overall, just behind Armstrong.
Nocentini was relieved to still be in yellow, and said: “I have to thank my team so much. I really wanted to keep the maillot jaune.”
A 14-strong breakaway group, which included Roche and Manx rider Mark Cavendish, had initially gone clear after around 10km.
The sprinter was soon dropped, as was Jens Voigt, who sustained a puncture 51km out and was unable to recover the ground.
By the time the lead group had gone over the Cote de Lebetain, they had a lead of more than six minutes.
That gap was stretched even further after passing the second category-three climb, Cote de Blamont, and their biggest cushion proved to be around eight minutes and 40secs, about 60km out.
Astana set about closing the gap in the final 50km but it was clear by then the stage winner was going to come from the front dozen.
Hincapie, who did most of the dirty stuff at the front today, began to up the pace and individual attacks started to come about 12km out. The only one that stuck was Ivanov’s.
Roche powered past Hayden Roulston in the final few hundred metres to claim second.