Tour de France: Stage 7

Linus Gerdemann won stage 7 with an impressive ride through the mountains and took over both the yellow jersey for the overall lead and the white jersey for the lead in the young rider classification. The T-mobile rider built an overall lead of 1:24, but will lose the yellow jersey tomorrow as the riders who conserved their energy in the peleton today power through the mountains in a brutal stage 8. A great victory for the young German who will now be riding to support the T-Mobile leader Michael Rogers in his quest for a Tour win.

Discovery Channel Team kept their riders in contention as Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych, Alberto Contador, and Vladimir Gusev all finished safely in the main peleton 3:38 behind the winner. Leipheimer, a perennial contender in the tour is now in 16th place just over 4 minutes back. George Hincapie struggled in the heat and finished 7:04 back. Gusev and Contador fell sightly in the youth rider classification, but both remain in the top 5, 3:51 and 4:01 back respectively.

Team Astana riders, Andreas Kloden and Alexandre Vinokourov, who were both involved in a serious accident in Stage 5, stayed in the race. There were concerns they might have to withdraw, but they look to be recovering just fine. After taking it easy at the back of the peleton yesterday and nursing their injuries, they both stayed in the main pack without too much trouble. Vinokourov is a serious contender for the tour win, and will only get better as he recovers from the wreck. Watch to see if he can stay in contention through tomorrows difficult ride.

The top 20 currently looks like this:

1. GERDEMANN Linus T-MOBILE TEAM
2. LANDALUZE Inigo EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 00:01:24
3. DE LA FUENTE David SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 00:02:45
4. LEFEVRE Laurent BOUYGUES TELECOM + 00:02:55
5. SOLER HERNANDEZ Juan Mauricio BARLOWORLD + 00:03:05
6. KLÖDEN Andréas ASTANA + 00:03:39
7. GUSEV Vladimir DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM + 00:03:51
8. KARPETS Vladimir CAISSE D’EPARGNE + 00:03:52
9. ASTARLOZA Mikel EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 00:03:55
10. DEKKER Thomas RABOBANK + 00:03:57
11. CONTADOR Alberto DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM + 00:04:01
12. KASHECHKIN Andrey ASTANA + 00:04:01
13. EVANS Cadel PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 00:04:02
14. ROGERS Michael T-MOBILE TEAM + 00:04:03
15. PEREIRO SIO Oscar CAISSE D’EPARGNE + 00:04:03
16. LEIPHEIMER Levi DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM + 00:04:06
17. MENCHOV Denis RABOBANK + 00:04:06
18. VALVERDE Alejandro CAISSE D’EPARGNE + 00:04:09
19. POPOVYCH Yaroslav DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM + 00:04:14
20. KIRCHEN Kim T-MOBILE TEAM + 00:04:14