Turpin tops Mt. Jura stage

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AG2R"s Ludovic Turpin won the road stage and took the leader's jersey after an aggressive race by the Cofidis team of the morning's race leader Mickaël Buffaz.

The Frenchman out-sprinted Astana's Chris Horner and the Cofidis pair David Moncoutie and Rein Taaramae on the long, gradual ascent to the finish on Mont Jura.

"It was chaos - there were four Cofidis guys in the break of 20, but we never worked together too smoothly," Horner told Cyclingnews. "David Moncoutie attacked on the second to last climb, but Turpin descended like a madman and basically brought him back before the final climb."

"There were 11 of us coming into the final climb, and all I hoped to do was cover the moves and finish on the same time as the stage winner. I didn't want to have to go too deep."

Horner trails Turpin in the overall by 2 seconds due to time bonuses of 10, 8 and 6 seconds awarded for the top three finishers heading into the afternoon time trial - an 8.8km test in St. Genis Pouilly.