It was a day of Tony Awards on the Tour de France’s second day in the Vosges. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) reprised a familiar role in a new setting to solo to victory in Mulhouse at the end of stage 9, while Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Belisol) ensured that he will wear the yellow jersey on Bastille Day after finishing in the chasing group.

The main players in the fight for final overall victory, meanwhile, called something of a truce, with the Astana team of Vincenzo Nibali leading the peloton home 7:45 down on Martin and seemingly happy to concede yellow to Gallopin, at least temporarily.

Martin went clear in the company of Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale) on the descent of the first climb, the Col de la Schlucht, and then dropped the Italian on the principal difficulty of the day, the category 1 Markstein, with some 59 kilometres remaining.