With Thomas Voeckler holding on to the yellow jersey for another day and Ricard Virenque’s stirring Bastille Day victory yesterday, the 91st Tour is providing the locals with much more cheer than usual.

Moncoutie had formed a three-man escape with Euskaltel’s Egoi Martinez and Juan Antonio Flecha of Fassa Bortolo 49 kilometres into the 164km route.

And the Cofidis rider left his Spanish companions behind around 9km from the finish, counter-attacking a Flecha break to ride alone into the adulation that awaited in Figeac and his first stage win in the Tour.

Local knowledge certainly seemed to play a part as neither Martinez nor Flecha had the legs to respond.

Moncoutie said: “To win a stage is wonderful. To live around here and win here is incredible.

“I know the road and I knew when I had 30 seconds, I knew I could win.”

Voeckler was able to celebrate a week in the yellow jersey – holding the lead for about six days longer than he expected – after another fine ride.

It would have been easy for the young Brioches La Boulangerie rider to have surrendered either today or over yesterday’s marathon stage but he again proved himself a worthy Tour leader.

The big guns – including Lance Armsrong aiming for his sixth Tour win – still have plenty of bullets to fire, however.

And tomorrow, the Pyrenees will loom over the race for the first time with the Tour heading for a 197.5km slog to the ski station at La Mongie.

There were certainly warning signs for Voeckler early in this stage when he was left behind by a split in the peloton which saw Armstrong and the likes of Jan Ullrich, Iban Mayo and Tyler Hamilton charge ahead.

He had more than enough time to recover but the race will get more unforgiving as it stretches into the weekend.

And, as always with the Tour, there is always the chance that the unpredictable will make an appearance.

Today, after the dog which caused the worst fall of a crash-filled race on Sunday, animals again interfered in the Tour with the peloton held up when six cows wandered into the road.

The bovine intervention was nothing like as dramatic as the canine but the peloton will still have been frustrated on a stage whose undulating gradients made chasing the breakaway trio hard enough.