The 2004 Tour de France was the 91st edition of Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Tour began in Liège, Belgium with a prologue individual time trial on 3 July and Stage 10 occurred on 14 July with a hilly stage from Limoges. The race finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 25 July. Stage 10 14 July 2004 — Limoges to Saint-Flour, This 237 km stage was the longest of the 2004 Tour and the first to feature some serious climbs. Cutting through the departments of Haute-Vienne, Corrèze, and Cantal, and so part of the Massif Central, the big climbs were the cat-1 Col du Pas de Peyrol (Le Puy Mary) and the cat-2's the Col de Neronne and the Col de Prat de Bouc. On Bastille Day the predominantly French crowd was willing a French stage win, a feat achieved thirteen times since 1947, the last being Laurent Jalabert in 2001. The day was calm, warm and sunny. 172 riders started the stage. The race began with small attacks in the first few kilometres but the peloton kept control until around Linards, at 35 km. A group of four riders, including veteran climber Richard Virenque, managed to pull out a small lead, they were joined by seven other riders just before the first sprint, but their lead was just 20 seconds. After the small lead group swelled to eighteen riders US Postal came to the front of the peloton and all the escapees except Virenque and Axel Merckx (son of Eddy) were soon back in the main group. The determined duo slowly pulled away, extending their advantage to 60 seconds by the 50 km mark. Joly and Kroon tried to join them but fell short and after they returned to the peloton the pace of the main group fell slightly, USP reduced their efforts, and the two leaders pulled further ahead. After the second climb (Col de Lestards, 67 km raced, cat-3) they were almost four minutes ahead. Virenque and Merckx pulled further ahead over the third climb and by the second intermediate sprint were 8'05" clear. At the summit of the Cote de Chalvignac (126.5 km raced) they had over nine minutes in hand. Brioches la Boulangere were doing most of the work at the front of the peloton. On the Col de Neronne the lead was 10'40", Virenque had taken maximum points on