Stage 7 Shakes Up Tour's Standings

Stage 7 of the Tour de France took the riders into the foothills of the Alps and the pretty difficult category 2 climb at the end of the race culled a lot of the pretenders from the top of the overall standings -- one of them being the wearer of the Yellow Jersey, Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland (Saxo Bank). Cancellara was broken on that climb and finished about 14 minutes behind the winner of the stage. He dropped from first to 84th place and will probably be out of contention for the rest of the Tour.

The hero of the day was French rider Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) who took the lead on the final climb and won his second stage of this year's Tour. His time was good enough for him to regain the Yellow Jersey. The second place finisher in this stage was a rookie riding in his first Tour de France -- Rafael Valls Ferri, Spain (Footon-Servetto). Another Spanish rider, Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank) finished in third place.

The Tour favorites (like Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Lance Armstrong, Andy Schleck, Bradley Wiggins, Denis Menchov) stayed together today in the peloton, but they kept up a high pace that dropped many of the weaker riders. Tomorrow is the day they will come out to play for real when the climbs get even more difficult. It is quite possible that Chavanel will once again lose the Yellow Jersey as these riders get serious about putting their mark on this year's Tour.

Stage 8 will be the most difficult day yet in this year's race. The 189 kilometer ride from Station Des Rousses to Morzine-Avoriaz starts out slow with a couple of category 4 climbs, but gets very hard near the end with a difficult category 1 climb followed by a category 3 climb and then finishes at the top of another difficult category 1 climb.

Here are the current leaders:

YELLOW JERSEY (Overall Leaders)

1. Sylvain Chavanel, France (Quick Step)

2. Cadel Evans, Australia (BMC Racing).....1' 25"

3. Ryder Hesjedal, Canada (Garmin-Transitions).....1' 32"

4. Andy Schleck, Luxembourg (Saxo Bank).....1' 55"

5. Alexandre Vinokourov, Kazakhstan (Astana).....2' 17"

6. Alberto Contador, Spain (Astana).....2' 26"

7. Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Belgium (Omega-Lotto).....2' 28"

8. Nicolas Roche, Ireland (AG2R La Mondiale).....2' 28"

9. Johan Van Summeren, Belgium (Garmin-Transitions).....2' 33"

10. Denis Menchov, Russia (Rabobank).....2' 35"

11. Bradley Wiggins, Great Britain (Sky Pro).....2' 35"

14. Lance Armstrong, USA (Radio Shack).....3' 16"

17. Levi Leipheimer, USA (Radio Shack).....3' 39"

24. Christopher Horner, USA (Radio Shack).....4' 03"

GREEN JERSEY (Sprinters)

1. Thor Hushovd, Norway (Cervelo).....118 pts

2. Alessandro Petacchi, Italy (Lampre-Farnese).....114 pts

3. Robbie McEwen, Australia (Katusha).....105 pts

4. Jose Joaquin Rojas, Spain (Caisse D'Epargne).....92 pts

5. Mark Cavendish, Great Britain (HTC-Columbia).....85 pts

6. Edvald Boasson Hagen, Norway (Sky Pro).....82 pts

7. Sebastien Turgot, France (Bouygues Telecom).....79 pts

8. Geraint Thomas, Great Britain (Sky Pro).....74 pts

9. Gerald Ciolek, Germany (Milram).....71 pts

10. Sylvain Chavanel, France (Quick Step).....69 pts

POLKA DOT JERSEY (Climbers)

1. Jerome Pineau, France (Quick Step).....44 pts

2. Sylvain Chavanel, France (Quick Step).....36 pts

3. Matieu Perget, France (Caisse D'Epargne).....28 pts

4. Thomas Voeckler, France (Bouygues Telecom).....21 pts

5. Ruben Perez Moreno, Spain (Euskaltel-Euskadi).....20 pts

6. Rafael Valls Ferri, Spain (Footon-Servetto).....18 pts

7. Juan Manuel Garate, Spain (Rabobank).....16 pts

8. Danilo Hondo, Germany (Lampre-Farnese).....16 pts

9. Daniel Moreno Fernandez, Spain (Omega-Lotto).....12 pts

10. Christian Knees, Germany (Milram).....11 pts

11. Samuel Dumoulin, France (Cofidis).....11 pts

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Astana

2. Rabobank.......0' 56"

3. Caisse D'Epargne.......1' 24"

4. Sky Pro.......1' 29"

5. Radio Shack.......2' 07"

6. Bouygues Telecom.......3' 40"

7. BMC Racing.......3' 44"

8. HTC-Columbia.......4' 15"

9. Quick Step.......4' 33"

10. Cofidis.......7' 36"

17. Garmin-Transitions.......14' 54"