Moncoutie Triumphs in Dauphine-Libere Stage Seven; Valverde Defends Lead

On the long, pivotal seventh stage of the Dauphine-Libere, which took in three enourmous mountains, including a mountaintop finish, French climber David Moncoutie (Cofidis) played his cards extremely well and launched a well-timed effort to secure the win.

Right from the start of the 157-kilometer stage, several riders broke away.  At the top of the first main peak of the Col du Galibier, nearly 20 more bridged the gap to join them, including eventual stage winner Moncoutie and yesterday's winner Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom), who was also holding the mountain points classification lead.

Classification heavyweights Alberto Contador (Astana), Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), and race leader Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) stayed together just like yesterday as the swollen breakaway of nearly 30 riders gained a four-minute advantage on the road.

The race heated up on the final mountain of the day, the Longchamp, which headed straight for the finish line on its summit.

Moncoutie set out of the disintegrating breakaway in search of Matthias Frank (BMC Racing) who was already up the road.  He caught and dropped the Swiss rider quickly and went hunting on his own for the stage win. 

Behind, the yellow jersey group was getting antsy.  Cadel Evans tried time and time again to drop his companions of Contador and Valverde, but he could not shake the Spaniards. 

Robert Gesink (Rabobank) attacked out of the Valverde group as well in search of improving his overall fourth place.

Moncoutie soloed in for the stage in.  Forty seconds later, Evans put in a final attack.  Valverde marked him, but both dropped Contador. 

The surge was so strong that the duo caught Gesink on the line.  Gesink barely held on for second, Evans took third, and Valverde fourth.

Valverde retains his 16-second advantage on Evans going into the final stage, a 146-kilometer jaunt into Grenoble, with the very difficult climb of the St. Bernard du Touvet, which averages over 10 percent gradient.