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Dauphiné Libéré Stage 7: Moncoutie takes stage win

Valverde holds on to lead on a day of attacks from Evans

David Moncoutie won today's seventh stage of the Dauphiné Libéré today, but Alejandro Valverde retained the leader's yellow jersey after resisting a day attacks from his Australian challenger Cadel Evans.

Moncoutie (Cofidis) was the sole survivor of what had been a 27 man breakaway with the big three challengers for the overall Evans, Valverde and Contador finishing in 3rd, 4th and 6th places respectively. In the final approach to the line Evans attacked once again and while Valverde responded and stuck to Evans' wheel his countryman, Contador paid the price for responding to so many of Evans' earlier attacks on more than one occasion pulling Valverde back on to the Australian's wheel. Robert Gesink of Rabobank who attacked from the chasing bunch with 6Km to go was 2nd and Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank) was 5th. Saxo Bank did much of the work to reel in the break before the final climb on which the Dane attacked but he blew up 500m from the finish and Evans and Valverde passed him.

Valverde now goes in to tomorrow's final stage from Faverges to Grenoble with a 16 second lead while it is a much less mountainous stage than the preceding two, with a long flat section in the middle there is a bit of a kicker towards the end, the Cat 1 940m Cote de St-Bernard Du Touvet. It's not quite in the bag yet for Valverde but he remains favourite for the win.

Top 10 Dauphiné Libéré Stage 7

1) David Moncoutié (Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne)        4.44.26 (33.118 km/h)
2) Robert Gesink (Rabobank)                                0.41
3) Cadel Evans (Silence - Lotto)
4) Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Caisse d'Epargne)
5) Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank)                         0.53
6) Alberto Contador Velasco (Astana)                       0.55
7) Christophe Le Mével (Française Des Jeux)                1.28
8) Vicenzo Nibali (Liquigas) 2.19
9) Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Silence - Lotto)                 2.25
10)Mikel Astarloza Charreau (Euskaltel - Euskadi)          2.32

Top 10 on General Classification after Stage 7

1) Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Caisse d'Epargne)       23.00.53
2) Cadel Evans (Silence - Lotto)                            0.16
3) Alberto Contador Velasco (Astana)                        1.18
4) Robert Gesink (Rabobank)                                 2.41
5) Mikel Astarloza Charreau (Euskaltel - Euskadi)           3.40
6) Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank)                          4.08
7) Vicenzo Nibali (Liquigas)                                4.21
8) Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Astana)                          5.05
9) David Millar (Garmin - Slipstream)                       5.28
10) Christophe Le Mével (Française Des Jeux)                6.19 

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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