Australian Phil Anderson of the Motorola cycling team won the 10th stage of the Tour de France Monday, a 128.9 mile road race between Rennes and Quimper.
Anderson outsprinted Denmark's Brian Holm and Belgians Michel Dernies and Nico Edmonds in the last few yards, just as the pack was closing in on the breakaway group.Three-time Tour de France winner American Greg LeMond of the Z team maintained the overall leader's yellow jersey.
LeMond started this year's race with the yellow jersey as the defending champion. He gave it up immediately to Thierry Marie of France, who won the prologue.
LeMond got it back the next day after the first stage, but held onto it for just an afternoon before Rolf Sorensen of Denmark claimed it for the next four days.
"Since the beginning of the Tour, everybody's been attacking. That's why the lead has changed so much," LeMond said.
After Sorensen went out with a broken collarbone and Marie got it back for a second time, LeMond again took the lead - and the yellow jersey - by placing second in Saturday's time trial.
He held it for a second consecutive day on Sunday by finishing in the pack, 53 seconds behind stage winner Mauro Riberio of Brazil.
For LeMond, two days is the longest stint he's had wearing the yellow jersey since the middle of the 1989 race.
He usually wins it just in the nick of time - like the final-day time trial two years ago that enabled him to nip France's Laurent Fignon by eight seconds, or his come-from-behind effort on the next-to-last day last year to overtake Claudio Chiappucci of Italy.
LeMond wouldn't mind losing the jersey again - just as long as he wears it at the end of the race.
"I ride to win the Tour overall. So tactically I don't care what happens day after day," LeMond said. "I don't know if I can control everyone."
After the 11th stage, there is a plane transfer on Wednesday from Nantes to Pau. The riders then encounter two stages in the Pyrenees.
"From the Pyrenees on is when the race is going to take shape," LeMond said. "It is sure going to be in the Pyrenees to find out where I really stand on the Tour."
The 13th stage, from Jaca, Spain, to Val Louron, France, is marked by two first-category climbs and two others rated "out of category" in the Tour de France's rating scale on degree of difficulty.