STAGE 7: Le Mans -> Châteauroux - 215KM

Stage 7 News

Cadel Evans relieved to get through stage six CADEL Evans was happy to lose the King of the Mountains polka-dot jersey and instead adopt a safety-first approach on a sodden sixth stage of the Tour de France. "Already it was a long day (226.5km), with the wind and the rain," Evans said. "This is my seventh Tour and it's the most wet weather I have had in one day. "And to have it happen (poor weather) on the longest day made it even harder." http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/tour-de-france/cadel-evans-relieved-to-get-through-stage-six/story-fn8s9i81-1226090991072 Great day for Norway; everyone else is all wet Alberto Contador knew it made little sense to take risks on a day when blinding, torrential rain lashed riders in the Tour de France. The 141-mile course Thursday - the sixth and longest stage in the three-week race - made for a dangerous trip. And the field was fortunate to avoid a major crash one day after riders, including Contador, went tumbling. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/07/SP501K7PQ7.DTL Evans well-placed heading into hills The real Tour de France starts this weekend for Cadel Evans and his rivals for overall honours. Stage eight, Saturday's 189km route from Aigurande to the ski station at Super-Besse Sancy, features four climbs. These are not the massive mountain passes that await the riders in the Pyrenees and Alps - where the Tour will be decided. But as the official race guide notes, "we are starting to get serious now". Stage eight will go through the heart of the massif central region in France and features an uphill finish. It is a notable change in terrain from the Tour's opening week, when crashes, high-speed sprint finishes and nervous riders were predictably strong themes. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-sport/evans-wellplaced-heading-into-hills-20110708-1h6jy.html Gilbert to lose green jersey in support of Greipel? After some internal tension within Omega Pharma-Lotto, Friday's stage seven from Le Mans to Chateauroux will be raced in support of the squad's pure sprinter André Greipel. The perfectly flat parcours provides the last opportunity for the fast men to show themselves in this first week of the race, and team management has apparently decided to focus on the tall German for the victory. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gilbert-to-lose-green-jersey-in-support-of-greipel

Top 10 Stage 7 1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Highroad 5:38:53 2 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre - ISD 3 André Greipel (Ger) Omega Pharma-Lotto 4 Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 5 William Bonnet (Fra) FDJ 6 Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Katusha Team 7 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Team Garmin-Cervelo 8 Sébastien Turgot (Fra) Team Europcar 9 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team 10 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale General classification after stage 7 Result 1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Team Garmin-Cervelo 28:29:27 2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:01 3 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:00:04 4 David Millar (GBr) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:00:08 5 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack 0:00:10 6 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Leopard Trek 0:00:12 7 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 8 Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Highroad 0:00:13 9 Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Highroad 10 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:20 ......
11 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Pro Team Astana 0:00:32 12 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:00:33 15 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:01:03 18 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:12 19 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD 24 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:01:42 32 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:02:36

It looked like Greipel was the best sprinter today, Cavendish just had much better team mates!