Stage 10 threatened to erupt into chaos at several moments, thanks to crosswinds and road furniture-induced crashes. But in the end we were treated to a traditional bunch sprint and a long-deserved stage win for Sam Bennett.

The 29-year-old Irishman had won stages in the Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia, but not the Tour. On Tuesday, he finally crossed the line first at the Grand Boucle by following a brilliant leadout by Michael Morkov and breaking with just 100 meters to go. Caleb Ewan attacked off his wheel and gained on him, but fell a quarter of a wheel short as they threw their bikes to the line. As the pair coasted past the finish, Ewan reached out his fist and congratulated his rival.

After the stage, Bennett gave an emotional interview, and apologized for being a "cry baby."

Peter Sagan finished third, and gave up the green jersey to Bennett, who could become the first rider to ever beat Sagan heads up on the points classification. Sagan has won the green jersey every year he has completed the Tour de France, only failing to win in 2017 when he was disqualified for throwing an elbow at Mark Cavendish.

We'll break down the green jersey competition as it stands in a sec. First let's run down a day that just barely stayed sane.

• The initial break was a pair of Swiss riders, Stefan Kung and Michal Schar, but their gap was never threatening. The peloton drove fast all day, and caught the pair with 100 kilometers still to go in the stage.
• Deceuninck-Quick Step led the pack, and got aggressive when the break was caught, leaving a few riders off the back. A big domino crash in the midst of the peloton distanced riders even farther, and left Toms Skujins looking like Bruce Banner mid-Hulking out.
• Another crash at 65k put Tadej Pogacar and Guillaume Martin on the road, as well as formidable stage hunters Davide Formolo (who would go to the hospital after finishing the stage) and Bryan Coquard. The crash established a pattern: Every time the tempo was upped in the peloton, a rider somewhere would nick a wheel or a barrier and cause a pileup. Rinse, repeat.
• Another crash at 31k to go, this time sending Warren Barguil down as well a couple more Arkea-Samsic riders.
• At 20k to go, Ineos took over the front and made another attempt to split the peloton on twisting, narrowing roads, just as they did late in Stage 7. The gambit didn't create any significant gaps on the general classification this time, but it did send more riders to the ground.
• Yet another big crash at 16.7k to go. Road furniture was the cause once again. Several CCC riders went down, as well as Miguel Angel Lopez and Martin for a second time. Julian Alaphilippe suffered a mechanical problem at about the same time. Cofidis riders fell back to usher Martin back to the pack safely. Lopez safely returned to the pack, too.
• Kung tried to go off the front again, this time with 14.5k to go. Not much happened, but he sewed up the "Most Combative" prize, at least?

And that's about the whole of it. A lot of nervousness; not a lot of real consequence unless we find out that a few of the falls were worse than they looked when riders abandon tomorrow.

Following the morning press release stating that no riders tested positive for Covid-19 on the rest day (though a few team staff members did, as well as Tour director Christian Prudhomme), "tense but OK" seemed to be the theme of the day. That, and the fact that little coastal roads are probably better suited for driving slowly in a little Citroen, not giant, aggressive bike races.

So the green jersey is going to be a battle?

It is! Right now, Bennett has more than 20 points on Sagan, who does not appear to be in top form. In terms of head-to-head speed, Bennett's the better bet, but Sagan is still going to be tough to edge out because of how good he is on any terrain.

Week 2 in particular is filled with lumpy stages on which Sagan will be tough to follow over short summits. Profiles like Stage 13 are the sort that Sagan has historically hoovered up to establish insurmountable leads:

For now, it's a battle between two riders, but classic bunch sprint profiles like Stage 11, Stage 19 and Stage 21 could reintroduce someone like Caleb Ewan to the competition. There's also Matteo Trentin, who has been the most active rider in stealing intermediate sprints, putting himself in fourth place overall. And of course, there's Wout van Aert hovering down the leaderboard, ready to decimate the opposition if Jumbo-Visma gives him the green light. (They won't, but a man can dream.)

In short, the fight for green is arguably the most fun it has been in damn near a decade, and it should headline the second week of the Tour just before we get into the high mountains.

Fun?

Mostly just a lot of nervous moments. But at least the scenery was peaceful:

The bridge views were stunning, too.

And there were elephants?

Egan Bernal made the questionable decision to cut his own hair.

Watch Bennett find out in real-time that he won the photo finish.

The standings

STAGE 10

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) -- 3hr 35min 22sec
2. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) -- "
3. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) -- "
4. Elia Viviani (Cofidis) -- "
5. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) -- "
6. Andre Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation) -- "
7. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- “
8. Cees Bol (Sunweb) -- "
9. Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) -- "
10. Luka Mezgec(Mitchelton-Scott) -- "

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) — 42hr 15min 23sec
2. Egan Bernal (Ineos) — +21sec
3. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) — +28sec
4. Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale_ -- +30sec
5. Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) — +32sec
6. Rigoberto Uran (Education First) -- "
7. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- +44sec
8. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) — +1min 02sec
9. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) – +1min 15sec
10. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) -- +1min 42sec

GREEN JERSEY

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — 196 points
2. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) — 175
3. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- 129
4. Matteo Trentin (CCC) — 123
5. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) -- 111

POLKA DOT JERSEY

1. Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale) — 36 points
2. Nans Peters (AG2R-La Mondiale) -- 31
3. Marc Hirschi (Sunweb) -- 26
4. Ilnur Zakarin (CCC) -- 25
5. Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) -- 24

Stage 11 preview -- 167.5km from Chatelaillon-Plage to Poitiers

Stage 11 will begin at 1:40 p.m. local, 7:40 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 7:30 a.m. on NBCSN. (Here’s NBC’s complete broadcast schedule).

Don’t get that channel? You’ll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.

If you can’t watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.

A rare straight-forward sprint stage? At least this one heads straight inland. We won't spend too much time psychoanalyzing this profile. Barring crosswinds, this stage should feel a lot like the last one, hopefully with less crashing.

Can Sam Bennett make it a repeat? Will Caleb Ewan pull off another sensational maneuver? How about Cees Bol and Sunweb finally making good on an intricately engineered leadout? Maybe Andre Greipel will roar to life at the ripe age of 38?

Bake a broyé poitevin as riders amble over to Poitiers and bite in just as riders are tightening up their shoes for the finale.