were unable to stay ahead of the peloton. The other three riders from the breakaway retained most of their lead, with little urgency among the peloton for reducing their winning margin, and Sánchez sprinted clear to take the stage. Voeckler assumed the overall lead and Hoogerland had gained enough points prior to his crash to regain leadership in the King of the Mountains competition, while Philippe Gilbert was again the first to finish from the main group, extending his lead in the points classification. Stage 10 12 July 2011 — Aurillac to Carmaux, The stage after the first rest day returned to lower altitudes, and had only third and fourth category climbs. A six-man breakaway group became established after 11 km, consisting of Rémy Di Gregorio (), Arthur Vichot (), Sébastien Minard (), Julien El Fares (), Marco Marcato () and Anthony Delaplace (), but never had more than three minutes advantage, and was finally caught by late breakaways, and eventually most of the field, on the ascent of the final climb, some 15 km from the finish. That late break was started by Philippe Gilbert, leader of the points competition, and overall leader Thomas Voeckler, and also had Tony Gallopin (), Dries Devenyns () and Tony Martin (). This break was unsuccessful, but prevented the usual sprinters' trains, and in the final kilometre, Mark Cavendish was following Daniel Oss () prior to his final effort. André Greipel (), who had been following Cavendish, was able to pass him in the final straight to win the stage, while Cavendish and third placed José Joaquín Rojas reduced Gilbert's lead in the points competition on a day that had no effect on the upper reaches of the general classification. Stage 11 13 July 2011 — Blaye-les-Mines to Lavaur, On another stage that was expected to suit sprint specialists, the six members of the breakaway group (Rubén Pérez, Lars Boom, Andriy Hrivko, Mickaël Delage, Tristan Valentin and Jimmy Engoulvent were unable to gain an advantage of more than four and a half minutes. Amid heavy rain, the break was not caught until the final of the race, and Mark Cavendish took the bunch sprint for his third win of the race, and the resultant points, in combination with those he took by being the first non-breakaway rider at the intermediate sprint, allowed him to take the leadership in the green jersey competition. The