Stage 7 Mountains Shake Up Tour Standings

I love the mountain stages of the Tour de France. It's in the mountains that you find out who the strong riders and the strong tems really are, and you cannot win the Tour without being a strong rider backed by a strong team. Stage seven was one of those stages, and it really shook up the standings.

There was a breakaway that was able to survive to the finish line, giving Frenchman Brice Feillu of Agritubel his first ever Tour stage win. But Feillu started the day well back in the standings, so he only moved up to 29th overall and is still 4.26 behind the leader of the race.

One of his fellow breakaway riders, Italian Rinaldo Nocentini of AG2R, started the day close enough to the front that he was able to eke out his first yellow jersey by a few seconds. However, no one expects him to keep that jersey for very long. I believe he'll give it up tomorrow to either Alberto Contador or Lance Armstrong.

That's because Astana proved itself to be a very strong team. The peloton stayed together until the final unrated climb, but then Astana went to work. They pounded out such a fast pace that it strung riders out all over the mountain. Very few riders were able to stay with them. The race leader, Fabian Cancellara, was one of the riders that Astana's pace broke, and he went from first to 39th place in the standings -- 5.37 behind now.

Stage eight is another mountain stage. It has a catagorey 2 climb and two catagorey 1 climbs, and I expect Astana will produce another punishing pace in an effort to put an Astana rider in the yellow jersey. Here are the current standings:

YELLOW JERSEY (OVERALL LEADERS)
1. Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R)
2. Alberto Contador (Astana)..........0.06
3. Lance Armstrong (Astana)..........0.08
4. Levi Leipheimer (Astana)..........0.39
5. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin)..........0.46
6. Andreas Kloden (Astana)..........0.54
7. Tony Martin (Columbia)..........1.00
8. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin)..........1.24
9. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)..........1.49
10. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas)..........1.54

GREEN JERSEY (SPRINTERS)
1. Mark Cavendish (Columbia)..........106 pts
2. Thor Hushovd (Cervelo)..........105 pts
3. Gerald Ciolek (Milram)..........66 pts
4. Tyler Farrar (Garmin)..........54 pts
5. Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank)..........53 pts
6. Jose Rojas (Caisse)..........53 pts

POLKA DOT JERSEY (CLIMBERS)
1. Brice Feillu (Agritubel)..........49 pts
2. Christophe Riblon (AG2R)..........46 pts
3. Christophe Kern (Cofidis)..........46 pts
4. Egoi Martinez (Euskadi)..........43 pts
5. Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R)..........34 pts

TEAM LEADERS
1. Astana
2. AG2R..........1.48
3. Columbia..........4.42
4. Milram..........5.17
5. Saxo Bank..........5.21