Tour De France 2012 Stage 7 Results: Winner, Leaderboard and Analysis

Bradley Wiggins of Belgium is the overall leader after Stage 7 of the Tour de France, but the stage belonged to his teammate Christopher Froome.

The Kenyan-born but British-licensed Froome aided his teammate's cause to hold off Cadel Evans and then captured his own triumph.

In the rough and tumble final 100 meters, Froome out-climbed Evans. It was the first win of a stage for Froome in his career, and it was huge because it was the first mountaintop finish.

He earned the polka-dot jersey for the event's best mountain-climbing rider. Team SKY made a big statement in this stage, with Froome's finishing first and Wiggins' finishing third. They solidified themselves as the premier climbing team.

These steep stages and finishes are the aspects of the event that separate the men from the boys, and Froome proved to be the best man today.

The leader through most of the first six stages, Fabian Cancellara, faded in this stage.

It was an expected fall for Cancellara, who simply didn't have the power to compete in the mountain stages.

Here are the final results for Stage 7 and the current standings for the event (per NBCSports.com):

Stage 7 and Overall Standings

Place	Name	Time	Time Gap	Team	Bib No.	Age
1	Christopher Froome	04:58:35	00:00:00	SKY	105	27
2	Cadel Evans	04:58:37	00:00:02	BMC	001	35
3	Bradley Wiggins	04:58:37	00:00:02	SKY	101	32
4	Vincenzo Nibali	04:58:42	00:00:07	LIQ	051	27
5	Rein Taaramae	04:58:54	00:00:19	COF	081	25
6	Haimar Zubeldia	04:59:19	00:00:44	RNT	019	35
7	Pierre Rolland	04:59:21	00:00:46	EUC	029	25
8	Janez Brajkovic	04:59:21	00:00:46	AST	181	28
9	Denis Menchov	04:59:25	00:00:50	KAT	131	34
10	Maxime Monfort	04:59:31	00:00:56	RNT	016	29

Overall Standings

Place	Name	Time	Time Gap	Team	Bib No.	Age
1	Bradley Wiggins	34:21:20	00:00:00	SKY	101	32
2	Cadel Evans	34:21:30	00:00:10	BMC	001	35
3	Vincenzo Nibali	34:21:36	00:00:16	LIQ	051	27
4	Rein Taaramae	34:21:52	00:00:32	COF	081	25
5	Denis Menchov	34:22:14	00:00:54	KAT	131	34
6	Haimar Zubeldia	34:22:19	00:00:59	RNT	019	35
7	Maxime Monfort	34:22:29	00:01:09	RNT	016	29
8	Nicolas Roche	34:22:42	00:01:22	ALM	079	28
9	Christopher Froome	34:22:52	00:01:32	SKY	105	27
10	Michael Rogers	34:23:00	00:01:40	SKY	108	32

Team to Watch

Froome pushed through for the stage victory. It culminated the rigorous final 100 meters of this, the first mountain stage.

Team SKY's teamwork through this stage helped prevent Evans from getting ahead of Wiggins in the overall, but it also paved the way for Froome's run.

This selfless riding will help keep Wiggins with the yellow jersey, but it also shares the sugar with his teammates.

One to Watch

It's still Wiggins. Even though he shared the spotlight with a teammate today, he is still ahead by 10 seconds, after finishing locked with rival Evans.

The two men were virtually even at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots in the stage standings.

They were favorites coming in, but with Team SKY's performing so well, Wiggins has a bit of an edge, in my opinion.

Biggest Faller

Cancellara is not a climber, and he predictably slipped in the standings from first to 11th. When the trek flattens out, he'll look to regain some ground.

But the overall balance of Wiggins and Evans will likely prove too much for him to overcome.

Next Up

Stage 8 figures to be even more difficult than Stage 7. It's only 98 miles, but it has eight categorized climbs.

This is not a stage that will lend itself to those that don't excel in climbing.

The stage finishes just across the border into Switzerland. I expect another strong performance from Wiggins and Evans.

Froome proved he is truly a force to be reckoned with, but we'll see if he can out-shine Wiggins and Evans again.

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