Gerdemann pulls surprise
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ByEurosport
Published 14/07/2007 at 16:14 GMT
Germany's Linus Gerdemann stunned the mountain goats with a solo attack on the first major climb of the Tour de France to win stage seven from Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand-Bornand on the first day in the Alps.
CYCLING 2007 Tour de France T-Mobile Gerdemann
Image credit: AFP
The 24-year-old T-Mobile rider, who started the day in 20th place at 58 seconds behind previous leader Fabian Cancellara, claimed the yellow leader's jersey and the best young rider's white jersey with the win.
After riding in a 15-man break-away for much of the day, Gerdemann made his decisive move on the day's climactic climb and the first major ascent of the Tour, the category one Col de la Colombière.
With 11 kilometres left in the 16 kilometre climb (6.8% average gradient) Gerdemann and Dmitry Fofonov (Credit Agricole) left the lead group.
Not pleased with the Kazakh's pace, Gerdemann went off on his own five kilometres later and never looked back powering to the summit of the first Cat. 1 climb of this year's Tour alone as Spanish climber Inigo Landaluze gave chase.
The German rapidly charged down the back half of the Col de la Colombier, easing to victory on the descent and finishing a full 42 seconds in front of Euskaltel's Landaluze.
David de la Fuente, who chased Gerdemann alongside Landaluze for parts of the climb, finished third at a further minute behind his Spanish compatriot.
Gerdemann, a former U23 national champion whose biggest previous win came in stage seven of the 2005 Tour de Suisse, is now a major favourite to win the white jersey for the best young rider.
He leads the general classification from Landaluze by one minute and 24 seconds, with sixth-place Andreas Kloeden the best placed of the early favourites at three minutes and 39 seconds behind the yellow jersey.
There was no Bastille Day victory for the French, as Bouygues Telecom's Laurent Lefevre was the home-nation's best finisher claming fifth on the country's national holiday.
Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel retained the polka dot jersey for best climber, however, with Gerdemann moving into second in the mountains classification with 30 points for finishing first atop the Col de la Colombiere.
Defending polka-dot jersey Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) had a solid day moving up into seventh in the mountain standings at 20 points behind Chavanel, who leads on 42 points.
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