PAU, France, July 12 (UPI) -- Spain's Juan Miguel Mercado pulled away from the pack to win the 10th stage of the Tour de France Wednesday and France's Cyril Dessel took the overall lead.
Mercado edged Dessel in a sprint at the finish of the 190.5-kilometer 10th stage in Pau, France, in four hours, 49 minutes and 10 seconds, but Dessel's performance put him into the overall race lead 2 minutes and 34 seconds ahead of Mercado.
Serhily Honchar of Ukraine, who began the day wearing the yellow jersey of overall leader, finished the Tour's first mountain stage more than 7 minutes behind the leaders to fall to third overall, 3 minutes, 45 seconds behind Dessel.
Cristain Moreni of Italy was fourth overall and American Floyd Landis was in fifth place overall.
Stage 11 winds 206.5-kilometers from Tarbes to Val d'Aran Pla-de-Beret in the Pyrenees of southwest France on Thursday.
