Weather: Warm, highs in low 90s, moderate tail, crosswinds

Stage winner: Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) marked late attacks from Jens Voigt to win a four-up sprint ahead of Markus Fothen (Gerolsteiner). Bennati overcame pain from a stage 2 crash to sneak into the day’s eight-man break. It’s his first career Tour stage and the second by an Italian in this year’s Tour.

Race leader: Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) took the yellow jersey following the controversial ejection of overnight leader Michael Rasmussen by his Rabobank team. Contador didn’t wear the maillot jaune during the stage, but donned it for the first time in the post-stage protocol. Without Rasmussen, Contador is 1:53 ahead of Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) and 2:49 ahead of Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel).

Green jersey: Tom Boonen (QuickStep-Innergetic) widened his lead to Robbie Hunter (Barloworld) to 212 to 190 after leading the main pack for ninth in the sprint.

King of the Mountains: Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) saw his lead increase following the departure of Rasmussen. Contador moved up to second with 128 points to Soler’s 206. The day’s breakaway scored all the points in six rated climbs.

Best Young Rider: Contador retained the white jersey to Soler to 13:31.

Best team: Discovery Channel retained its lead as Team CSC slotted into second at 15:22 back.

Lanterne Rouge: Wim Vansevenant (Predictor-Lotto) remained last at 3h44:40 back.

Most aggressive rider: Eternal attacker Jens Voigt (CSC) earned the day’s prize, with the eight-member panel saying “he represents the ideal attacker. Conscious of Bennati’s superiority in the sprint, he continued to collaborate and tried an attack with 4km to go.”

Top American: George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) slipped through 22nd to help keep Contador out of trouble. Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) moved up to third at 2:49 back.

The peloton: Rasmussen was kicked out by Rabobank. The six remaining members of Cofidis did not start following the doping positive by Cristian Moreni. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) did not finish. The peloton now numbers 141 riders.

Medical report: no report

Jury decisions: Voigt (CSC) fined 50 CHF, penalized 5 points and 10 seconds for pull on team car during mechanicalPineau (Bouygues Telecom) fined 50 CHF, penalized 5 points and 10 seconds for bidon pull