On a Tour of doubles so far Sylvain Chavanel again pulled a rabbit out of the hat, surviving solo from a breakaway to take the stage win and regain the Yellow Jersey following Stage 7, a 165km trek over medium mountains from Tournus to Station des Rousses. Chavanel took the victory from his fellow breakaway companions Rafaeal Valls Ferri and Juan Manuel Garate who finished second and third respectively. The first taste of the mountains saw the peleton split apart, and while this shook up the overall classification to some extent almost all of the big GC riders finished in the leading bunch.
But the plaudits on the day will definatley go to Chavanel who first counter-attacked to join the leading breakaway before attacking his companions on the final climb to power away to his second solo victory of this tour, this time by also a minute. And with Fabian Cancellara cracking big time on the final ascent of the Cote de Lamoura (he had lost over 14 minutes by the end of the day!) there was a double reward on offer for Chavanel, as he took the Yellow Jersey for the second time. He now holds a lead of almost one and half minutes over Australian Cadel Evans following Cancellara's capitulation. It will take a big effort to hold onto the jersey tomorrow however, as the peleton tackles the first cat-1 climbs of this years Tour. Still, no one deserves to hold onto the Jersey more than Chavanel who has twice braved solo attacks to win himself the golden fleece. Chavanel was one of many riders who were able to take advantage of the peleton's decision to let the break stay away on the stage with fellow placegetters Rafael Valls Ferrri and Juan Manuel Garate taking advantage of their freedome on the day.
The three cat-2 climbs in the last 60km seperated the men from the boys in the peleton with only an elite group of around 30 or so together by the end. The big loser on the day was Cancellara who, after doing a pile of work over the first week, cracked on the final climb of the day and eventually finished 14 minutes back. As a result Cadel Evans and Ryder Hesjedal are up to second and third overall trailing Chavanel by around 1:30, after Geriant Thomas also had a tough day in the saddle - losing over five minutes to the stage winner. He has forfeited his White Jersey to Andy Schleck (up to fourth overall), and Schleck will now likely be wearing it all the way to Paris. His leads the classification by just over a minute from young Czech star Roman Kreuziger. The only real loser for the main top 10 contenders was Andreas Kloden who lost four minutes to Chavanel and now sits about 5 minutes of the rest of the main favourites on GC.
Jerome Pinault increased his lead in the King Of The Mountains competition to 8 points over teammate Chavanel. Pinault cleverly put himself in the days break and led over all but the last climb of the day to tighten his grip on the Polka Dot Jersey. And with Chavanel unlikely to contest the jersey he has a virtual 16 point lead over his nearest challenger Mathieu Pergot. However, this classification could get a shake up tonight with two cat-1 climbs on the cards. Pinault may be looking for the early break again in order to boost his lead in the classification.
With plenty of climbs on the cards there was change in the race for the Green Jersey with Thor Hushovd still holding a slender 4 point lead over Alessandro Pettachi.
Yellow Jersey - Sylvain Chavanel
Green Jersey - Thor Hushovd
Polka Dot Jersey - Jerome Pinault
White Jersey - Andy Shleck
Tonight's Stage - Tonight sees the first real rendezvous of the 2010 Tour with the 189 km route from Station des Rousses to Morzine (Avoriaz). The route concludes with the two biggest climbs of the race so far in the form of the cat 1 ascents of the Col de La Ramaz and the final finishing climb to Morzine. Given this is one of few summit finishers on the parcours this year, and that Alberto Contador currently trails rivals like Cadel Evans and Andy Shleck by over a minute, I expect the Spaniard to stamp his mark on this years Tour with a big win tonight.
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