French Quick Step rider breaks away on the Tour’s first day in the mountains to take back what he lost on the cobbles of the north
Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) won the seventh stage of the Tour de France between Tournus and Station des Rousses after escaping the rest of a breakaway group on the final climb before the finish. Tour debutant Rafael Valls (Footon-Servetto) also managed to escape the rest of the group later in the climb and finished in second place 56 seconds behind Chavanel, Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank) took third place 1’27” back.
The Tour left the flatlands and made its way through the medium mountains of the Jura; the race favourites watched one another as he Frenchman rode away to reclaim the race lead before the Alps.
“I think next year I will no longer compete for the month of May,” joked Chavanel at the finish, “considering the form I’ve currently got at the Tour. I had legs of fire, and I knew I was on climbs that suited me very well – a gradient of four per cent, hills more than mountains.
“At first I was afraid to attack,” he continued, “because I did not want to take any riders up to [teammate] Jérôme [Pineau]. And when I did eventually catch him, he told me: ‘Go ahead!’ He was exhausted.
“We are in a spiral on this incredible Tour 2010,” he said of his Quick Step team. “We started with the whole team, and it goes perfectly. What we did in the stage to Spa was extremely rare. But to do it twice… oh, it’s wonderful. Now we will try to win a third!”
“I began to think of the yellow jersey on the last climb, and I told myself that after having lost, it was quite a coup to take it back again,” he said. He knows that with the high mountains coming in tomorrow’s stage it will be tough for him to hang on to the jersey. “Tomorrow I will do everything to defend it, but I know that the battle will mainly concern [Alberto] Contador, [Andy] Schleck and [Cadel] Evans. In the midst of it, I’ll always give everything but if I lose it does not matter.
“Right now I’m on my little cloud,” he added, “I’m floating and I don’t know how else to describe it. But I see that I have great support on the road and everywhere. It warms my heart.”
As in previous days, the break of the day escaped almost as soon as the lag had been dropped at the end of the day’s neutral section. Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step), wearing the polka-dot jersey of the mountains classification, was the first to move and he was joined by Danilo Hondo (Lampre-Farnese Vini), German champion Christian Knees (Milram), Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) and Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
The five riders were allowed to build up a maximum lead of 8’20” by the Saxo Bank team of race leader Fabian Cancellara, who were all present at the front of the peloton.
Pineau busied himself sweeping up the mountain points to consolidate his polka-dot jersey.
Having missed the escape once more the Bbox Bouyges Telecom team, who usually specialise in breakaways, was sent to the front of the peloton in the middle part of the stage and began to increase the pace. After 100km, as the race climbed the 2nd category Côte du barrage de Vouglans, the gap had been reduced to just 4’40” and many riders were being dropped by the unexpectedly early high pace.
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia), stage winner for the past two days, was among the first to lose contact; the other double stage winner Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and green jersey Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) soon joined him as the autobus began to form.
On the second to last climb, the Col de la Croix de Sella, and with the gap down to just 2’10”, Thomas Voeckler and Cyril Gautier (both Bbox Bouyges Telecom) finished off their team’s hard work and launched off the front. They were quickly joined by Daniel Lloyd (OmegaPharma-Lotto), Mathieu Perget (Caisse d’Epargne) and Valls. As they moved away up the road Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini) jumped and joined the group.
Ahead of them the lead group was thinning until only Pineau and Hondo remained; the German not working though as he was now waiting for Cunego.
Race leader Cancellara was briefly dropped and Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) was mailot jaune virtuel for a few minutes, but Cancellara and teammate Lars Bak worked hard to get back on.
The next attack from the peloton came from Chavanel, with Garate, Alexander Kolobnev (Katusha) and Daniel Moreno (OmegaPharma-Lotto). Kolobnev dropped back, but the others managed to join up with the Voeckler group. With all the talk before the stage being of the possibility of Thomas or World champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) ending the day in yellow it now looked like Chavanel, who started the day in fifth place at 1’01”, would be taking it back.
The Frenchman managed to leave the others and join the Voeckler group; with the peloton failing to react he was quickly 1’15” clear and it was his turn to be maillot jaune virtuel.
As the peloton made its way up the climb there were a number of further attacks, notably from Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), who was joined and then passed by last year’s Tour hero Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R-La Mondiale). The Astana team of Alberto Contador led the peloton, with Lance Armstrong’s RadioShack team in close attendance; Cancellara was yo-yoing on and off the back.
None of these latest attacks managed to stick though and as Pineau and JHondo crossed the top of the climb they were 50 seconds ahead of the Chavanel/Voeckler group, and 2’15” ahead of the peloton. Linus Gerdemann (Milram) put in an attack over the top and entered the descent a handful of seconds clear, but his move was not to last.
Chavanel attacked the group immediately the climb started; simultaneously, just up the road, his teammate Pineau attacked Hondo and set off alone. Pineau seemed to ease off a little and Chavanel joined him with 14.5km to go, but Chavanel went straight past and Pineau was unable to stay with him.
Cunego twice attacked the group in a bid to get up to the two Quick Step riders; he was followed by Voeckler and the pair soon passed the exhausted Pineau. They were caught by the rest of the group again though and Vells was the next to attack; the young Spaniard in his first Tour was more successful though and continued his lone pursuit of Chavanel.
Although the pace of the peloton was not enough to threaten to catch the riders up the road, a number of riders were dropping off the back. Cancellara was finally dropped once and for all and, knowing that his yellow jersey was lost, he sat up and took things easy for the rest of the climb. Having held high hopes of taking yellow before the stage, white jersey wearer Thomas suddenly cracked and watched his hopes disappear up the road ahead.
Even more surprisingly former Tour podium finisher Andreas Klöden (RadioShack) was forced to sit up and allow the Astana led peloton to drop him. The German shouted “A Demain!” to the TV cameras, inferring that he was saving himself for the much tougher climbs to come in tomorrow’s stage to Morzine-Avoriaz.
As Chavanel topped the final climb with less than 4km to go, he led Valls by 50 seconds, Garate by 1’40”, and the remains of the rest of the group by 2 minutes. He managed to hang on to his advantage to the line to take a hard fought solo victory; Vells managed to hold off Garate to take second, with the peloton almost catching Voeckler, Perget and Moreno on the line.
With Cancellara finally finishing 14’12” behind the Quick Step rider, Chavanel took back the yellow jersey that he lost so unluckily on the cobbles of stage 3. With no action between the overall race favourites behind him Evans profits from the demise of Thomas, moving into second place, with Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) rising to third.
Result
1. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step
2. Rafael Valls (Spa) Footon-Servetto @ 57s
3. Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Rabobank 1’27”
4. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bbox Bouyges Telecom @ 1’40
5. Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d’Epargne
6. Daniel Moreno (Spa) OmegaPharma-Lotto
7. Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bbox Bouyges Telecom @ 1’47”
8. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Transitions
9. Ruben Plaza (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
10. Eros Capecchi (Ita) Footon Servetto
Standings after stage 7
1. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step
2. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team @ 1’25”
3. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Transitions @ 1’32”
4. Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 1’55”
5. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Astana @ 2’17”