Italian Leonardo Piepoli won the 10th stage of the 2008 Tour de France on July 14 as the race continued to climb the Pyrenees, which brought the fifth change of leaders in this year's Tour with Australian Cadel Evans taking the yellow jersey of the leader in the general classification.

On the day that France celebrates its national holiday, Bastille Day, for some time it looked like breakaway Rémy di Gregorio would give the cheering crowds more reasons for joy, only to be caught on the final climb up to the finish of the 156km stage between Pau and Hautacam. Di Gregorio's consolation came in the shape of recognition as the most combative rider on the day.

With the Tour passing the first two highest-category climbs - the classic Col de Tourmalet pass and up to the Hautacam ski resort - the stage was expected to shake up the overall standings and so it did.

Already on Col de Tourmalet, two of the contenders for this year's race - Spaniard Alejandro Valverde and Damiano Cunego - began losing ground on the yellow jersey group of race leader Kim Kirchen. Relentlessly driven by CSC Saxo Bank and Saunier-Duval Scott teams, the group shrunk from 40 to just a dozen, with Kirchen one of those dropped.

CSC's Frank Schleck then attempted to break away, followed by Saunier-Duval's Piepoli and Juan Cobo Acebo. The two teammates lost Schleck along the way to finish first and second in Hautacam, bringing Saunier Duval-Scott its third stage win in the 2008 Tour de France.

“Cobo has some different ambitions to mine; he’d like to have a good result in the general classification," Piepoli said as qouted by the Tour's official website letour.com. "I have been fifth in a stage of the Tour and that was already enough to have some good memories. But I still have dreams and a win was one of them. Today is better than a dream!”

Schleck was third and missed out on the yellow jersey by one second, Evans showing no ill-effects from his fall a day earlier on the steep climbs. The rest of the top five in the overall standings is made up by Christian Vandevelde, Bernhard Kohl and Denis Menchov, all of them less than a minute behind Evans.

“Yesterday I was on the road honestly thinking that my Tour was over," Evans said after the finish. "I was scared to get up and move because I thought I’d broken a bone and to find myself in yellow now is just great. I don’t quite believe that I’ve got the yellow jersey yet. Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and realise what I’ve done. It’s a long way from being over but it’s a step towards where we want to be.”

Carlos Sastre is sixth, followed by Kirchen, Cobo Acebo and Riccardo Ricco, the stage winner on July 13, who stuck to the leaders this time, but made no efforts to add a third stage win to his account. Valverde and Cunego finished long after the leaders and would need to work hard to make up for the ground they lost here.

Kirchen lost both the yellow jersey and the green one of the leader in the sprinters' classification, which will be once again worn by Oscar Freire. In the king of the mountains standings, Riccardo Ricco will take the polka-dot jersey when the Tour returns to the road after a day's rest on July 16.