Stagewinner Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval - Scott) said after the stage: "I´m in heaven. This is something I´ve been waiting for all my life. Thank God, tomorrow is a rest day, for I don´t think I´ll be able to sleep tonight. It was victory, and it was a one-two with Cobo, which adds some excitement. I´ve been with him, De la Fuente and "Litu" since this team was founded. Last year he lost 20 minutes on one day in the Tour; otherwise, he´d have been in the top five. Cycling is a funny sport; I wasn´t planning to come to the Tour this year. My crash and drop-out from the Giro were difficult to overcome; I´d been training since November to be in good shape for that race. Sometimes you focus on a race and the results are disappointing, but then you succeed in another without as much preparation."

Piepoli's teammate and number 2 in yesterday's stage, Juanjo Cobo said : "After the time-trial I said I was feeling great for this Tour, even when the results hadn´t been as good as expected. I´ve been working so hard for this race, and then I had a bad day. But fortunately, this bad day was the time-trial and not a mountain stage. We´d agreed with Piepoli and Frank Schleck to hit the finish line together, for the three of us were interested in this stage, but Schleck couldn´t keep the pace and Leo and I did the rest. I guided most of the race, because Leo climbs in pulls and I find that method rather harmful. My initial goal was finishing the Tour in the top ten; given our leap today, I think we can go one up on that, but let´s take it one day at a time, right?"

A day after crashing and thinking that his chance of winning the Tour might be over, Cadel Evans (Silence - Lotto) has taken the yellow jersey. He achieved this coup at the summit of Hautacam, and now leads Frank Schleck by just one second in the general classification.

Cadel Evans said: "I’m only in the lead by a very small margin but, tactically every second counts. It’s a long way to the finish and our goal has always been to have the yellow jersey in Paris but as we saw yesterday, anything can happen in this race. One day ago I was counting every pedal stroke to the finish and today I was counting the seconds to try and calculate if I’d take the lead or not. That’s cycling; it can be cruel but sometimes it can be fair."

Evans continued by saying: "I nearly got dropped on the first category-three climb today and then I just said to my team-mate, ‘Guys, stay calm, be cool and hopefully I’ll get better.’ Thankfully it all came together at the end. The main difficulty was accounting for the numbers that CSC and Saunier Duval had. In that situation I have to watch three guys and they all know that; so it’s very hard to control."

Evans watched his main rivals: "I opted to keep an eye on Menchov, Sastre and Frank Schleck. I had to chose my guys and play my cards right. Finally Menchov saw the light and we worked together. That’s going to work to his advantage later on."

Evans added: "I think they might have figured out that I was suffering after the crash in stage nine. From the amount of blood that they would have seen yesterday, they’d be stupid if they didn’t know I was in a little bit of pain. "

Many observers think Silence - Lotto is not strong enough to defend the jersey. Evans said: "We may not be the strongest team but we’re trying to be the smartest team. We’re using our strengths as intelligently as possible and CSC still has a lot to gain. They’re only just out of the lead by one second and they’ve got the weight of numbers."

Evans was scared after his crash during stage nine: "Yesterday [Sunday, editor] I was on the road honestly thinking that my Tour was over. 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 realize what I’ve done. It’s a long way from being over but it’s a step towards where we want to be."

After four days wearing the yellow jersey for Team Columbia, Kim Kirchen lost his yellow jersey.

"Kim really showed his fighting spirit today," said Columbia's Team Director Rolf Aldag. "He is not a fan of the Pyrenees but he got through in pretty good position and now we can look forward to the Alps which suit him much better."

"He lost the jersey today but he is still in contention," he added. "We are very happy with what the team has achieved in the first half of the Tour and we will continue with our plan to fight for the General Classification."

Fränk Schleck is now just a single second behind Cadel Evans. But may´be even more impressive was the show of strenght that CSC - Saxo Bank showed yesterday. "The team was fantastic today – all our guys made an absolutely brilliant effort and Fränk is now very close to the Yellow Jersey. Amazing effort by Fränk as the icing on the cake, but also Fabian, Volodymir, Jens, Andy, Kurt, Nicki and Stuart did their job to perfection each at different points in the stage, so we have every reason to be proud of ourselves today," said Carlos Sastre, who was seventh in the stage and is now sixth overall.

"I'm happy and proud of my performance today and the fantastic team work by everyone out there. First and foremost it was my teammates who made this possible, it was incredible what they did and I would never have been able to do what I did without them. It would've been perfect if we'd managed to secure the Yellow Jersey, but let's see if we can do so at a later stage," said a very happy Fränk Schleck after the stage and continued:

"We'll revise our strategy and tactics as we go along in this race and we still have a lot of good cards on our hands. Whether I'm able to reach the podium or win the Tour is far too early to speculate on, but our main goal has always been for one of us to win this year's Tour de France – and nothing's changed as far as that's concerned."

The only downside for Team CSC Saxo Bank on Monday was that Andy Schleck fell behind on the final climb and lost the White Jersey.

"I'm disappointed that I couldn't keep up today, but happy and proud of my brother's performance. I was following the turn of events on the radio all the way up and it gave me a boost knowing he was well on his way to leading the race. But I knew already on Tourmalet that I wasn't having a good day today. Fränk tried to encourage me and kept saying to give it time, but I just didn't have it in me today," said Andy Schleck.

Rabobank's Denis Menchov is again within one minute of the yellow jersey. "We can be satisfied," noted Rabobank sports director Erik Breukink. Rabobank's Dutch revelation Laurens ten Dam again put up a surprising performance: "I think I did well today. Of course it is good for the morale to finish together with Cunego and Valverde."

Erik Breukink was, however, a little bit surprised about Cadel Evans' style of riding on the Hautacam. "I find it a bit strange how Evans responded in the first part of the Hautacam. He wanted to do nothing but to stay in Menchov’s wheel, while it was up to Evans to take the yellow jersey. He was in the best position. If he had simply ridden along earlier, the difference would not have been one second but a lot more."

Did you quickly figure out that, no matter what, this day would not provide an opportunity to ride away from Evans? Breukink: "At about halfway through the Hautacam, it became very clear to us that Evans and Menchov again were very equally-matched. Denis initiated two or three attempts to see what kind of response it would trigger, but Evans was alert and strong. The other way round though, Evans started off carefully and then all of a sudden started to attack instead of riding one tempo. We did not quite get that."

Subsequently, the riders did not sign a no-attack pact. Breukink: "During such a climb, riders gradually come to realize that they depend on one another. They quickly understand that they cannot out-ride the competition. At that point, it was important to limit the damage vis-à-vis the other attackers."

Breukink was happy with the performance of Oscar Freire as well. "Oscar was very smart, important and strong today. That green is good for the morale and for the team. He was also able to serve as a perfect assistant to Denis between the Tourmalet and the Hautacam. And Valverde and Cunego, I think we got rid of them. It is a shame that Laurens ended up in their group on the Tourmalet, because I think that is the reason why he could not return. In the front they did everything they could to ride away from the two favorites."

Self-explanatory, Laurens ten Dam was very delighted about yet another top-day in the mountains. He needed only 37 seconds more than Menchov and Evans to complete the final climb. Still, he did not use up every ounce of his energy. "I did not once overstep my physical limits. Hautacam makes you suffer. It is an odd climb. It is flat, and then very steep immediately after that. I did not know that; I had never seen it before. But, it went well. I only had to let go Samuel Sanchez and Valjavec in my group." He is now the best Dutchman in the classification at place 23. "I think I have the permission to be content about the first half of the Tour."

Last year Remy Di Gregorio (Francaise des Jeux) crashed before and had to abandon the Tour before it arrived in the terrain that he excels in. In stage 10 he ignited the action with a superb attack that earned him the ‘Souvenir Jacques Goddet’, a prime for the first rider over the Col du Tourmalet. He was caught before the finish but will savor the memory of his experience nonetheless.

Remy Di Gregorio said: "It was a beautiful day for me. I had planned to escape and I managed to spend a good part of the day in the lead. I was also able to climb well on the Col du Tourmalet and I went over the top with a lead of two minutes. This might have been sufficient if circumstances had been a little different in the race but with way that CSC swapped off behind me – to ensure that they put time into the Valverde group – I found myself in a situation that was rather dire despite the advantage I’d been able to build."

The young French climber continued: "I did not lose so much time in the valley and am proud of the way I raced. I loved this day, especially when I think that last year I only got to see the mountain stages of the Tour on television because I’d broken a rib in the first week."

Di gregorio concluded: "The experience of climbing at the front of the Tour de France as we went over the Tourmalet is something that provided me with a good revenge for the situation I found myself in last year."