At the footh of the final climb, Leonardo Piepoli attacked with Christian Vande Velde. It was a move that forced Caisse d’Epargne to spend a lot of energy and, in return, acted as a catalyst for Riccardo Ricco to attack and claim his first stage victory in the Tour de France.

Riccardo Riccò said: "This stage is one that I targeted. Clearly it is one that suits me and he was able to finish off thanks to the beautiful work done by Leonardo Piepoli. Also the team of Valverde put in a lot of effort and I was keen to take advantage of that. It’s great! I’m really pleased to be able to deliver a victory at the Tour for my team."

"Now one of my objectives is to help Piepoli also win a stage because he should receive equal credit as me for what happened here. I just want to take it day by day and not make any predictions for what’s going to happen in the rest of the race. Now I can relax a little as a win helps take some pressure off."

"With 300 meters to go I saw Valverde easing up and insist that someone else come through for a turn. That was the right moment to attack and so, off I went… as hard as I could."

"To come to the Tour and win a stage was my main goal. Now that that has been achieved I’m going to start thinking about a second one."

Team Columbia’s Kim Kirchen stormed into the race lead of the Tour de France on Thursday’s summit finish at Superbesse. Seventh in the 2007 Tour, Kirchen is the first rider from Luxembourg to take the yellow jersey since Charly Gaul won the race overall almost half a century ago, back in 1958.

"It’s been an exceptionally good Tour for me and Team Columbia so far, I was holding the points jersey for several stages and now I’m in yellow." Kirchen  said.

"I wanted to go for the stage win to take the yellow jersey but there was a strong headwind and then some late attacks and I got blocked so I couldn’t move ahead." "In any case, I still ended up in the lead."

"I was hoping that my form was going to be good but it’s even better than expected."

"I came here focussed on getting the first stage win [finishing fourth], and got very close, but if that was a bit disappointing I made up with a great time trial, better than I expected, on stage four."
 
"Now I have taken the yellow jersey of cycling’s biggest race, and everybody knows how special that is."

Already the winner of two stages in the Tour of the Basque Country, the Fleche Wallone Classic and a stage in the Tour of Switzerland this year, Kirchen refused to rule out winning the Tour overall.

"The Tour is the Tour: it’s very long and extremely tough. A lot depends on what happens in the Pyrenees. If I can stay with the climbers there, then I’ll start thinking about taking the yellow jersey in the Alps."

Asked about the reinforced focus in Team Columbia on the young talent in the team since the beginning of 2008, Kirchen agreed that "we changed a lot."

"There are older, experienced riders, but a lot of new guys as well and the team has really gelled as a unit.  Now, in races like the Tour, we’re reaping some well-deserved rewards for everything we’ve done."

Satisfied about the performances by Rabobank captain Denis Menchov and the team. Upset about the bad luck in the final kilometer. Rabobank's Sports director Erik Breukink had mixed feelings after the first stage through medium mountains and the first serious uphill finish. "Denis is the victim of a dumb move by Schumacher. You cannot help it, but you end up losing more costly seconds anyway. A pity, but luckily this stage offered plenty of positive points with which we are very satisfied."

"It is a pity that the rule regarding setbacks in the last three kilometers does not apply to uphill arrivals. Understandable in a way, but we are left with the mess now, just because someone else got nervous. And that in a day in which Denis made a good impression. I am sure he would have stayed with Evans. Now another six seconds are added. Where we are going to make up for that? That depends mostly on Evans. Denis has to be able to strike when Evans has a weak moment. On the other hand, Evans is making a very good impression."

At the moment, the Australian has climbed relatively quietly to the second place. Through steadfast performances. "It will difficult to put a hole in that," knows Breukink. "But it is far from over and I am also still counting on fireworks by the Schleck brothers. They will not give up easily and they have a strong bloc behind them. A lot can happen still."

Once again Sylvain Chavanel animated the early part of a stage. The most aggressive rider of the second day this year, earned the most votes in that classification again in stage six but he also put himself in the polka-dot jersey.

"The initial aim was to escape in the hope of fetching a stage victory. Then, en route, we quickly realized that the peloton would not let us get away with more than five minutes. At the start of the stage I was a two minutes from the overall lead and I could have been a threat for the general classification. I am beginning to be known in the peloton, they know what my skills are. So, of course, I didn’t have a lot of scope," Sylvain Chavanel said.

"This prompted a change in strategy and I decided to concentrate on the polka-dot jersey, which is another objective on this Tour. It was the only thing to do. I could lead over the first three summits, which allowed me to take the lead but it remains a decisive stage. Yet to come are the major cols of the Tour; that’s where you win the climbing classification and that’s where I will have to defend."