Stage 7
The third and final mountain stage of the race
Attacks were expected to come on the last climb, but they came much earlier, on the penultimate climb. Even more surprisingly, it is 3rd overall Adam Hansen and 2nd overall Vidal Chão-Quente (Both from the Millar breakaway) who started it
When more attacks followed, Contador felt reluctantly obliged to come too if he wanted to win the stage
He made a group with Chao-Quente, Hansen, Larsson, Petrov and Pires - while Hruska was ahaed of them, leading the capture of the earlier breakaway
The peleton kept them close but didnt seem like they were going to catch them, so 5km before the start of the final climb, Iglinskiy attacked from the peleton
He joined Contadors group as the Spaniard led it onto the climb, 1 minute behind Hruska and the two surving early attackers Caruso and Bosisio.
Jimenez (CSF/Panaria) and Riber-Sellebjerg (Slipstream) attacked from the peleton and Millar followed them. Jimeneze made it up to teammate Bosisio and Hruska
The two groups would come together though
Contador kept on the front leading the pace though, hoping to pull away from everyone else
But Riber-Sellebjerg and Jimenez started to pull away, so Iglinskiy attacked up to them (since Contador could not)
Iglisnkiy powered into the lead
But as the finish neared, he cracked!
The Dane and the Spaniard came past him and then Jimenez snuck past the Danish rider to win
1 Eladio Jiménez CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE 4h18'53
2 Thomas Riber-Sellebjerg TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
3 Maxim Iglinskiy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 14
4 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 49
5 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
6 André Vital MADEINOX - BRIC - LOULÉ s.t.
7 Tomasz Marczynski VITÓRIA - ASC + 1'02
8 MartÃn Mata TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
9 José Azevedo LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
10 Héctor González TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
11 Jurgen Van Goolen RIBERALVES - BOAVISTA s.t.
12 Giampaolo Cheula SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
13 Sergio Luis Henao MADEINOX - BRIC - LOULÉ s.t.
14 Paolo Savoldelli LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
15 Francesco Bellotti BARLOWORLD s.t.
16 Bruno Pires LA - MSS - MILANEZA s.t.
17 Nelson Rocha RIBERALVES - BOAVISTA s.t.
18 Marco Marzano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
19 Scott Nydam FUERTEVENTURA - CANARIAS TEAM s.t.
20 Iñigo Cuesta LA - MSS - MILANEZA s.t.
21 Santos González KARPIN GALICIA s.t.
22 Gonzalo Rabuñal KARPIN GALICIA s.t.
23 Jay Thompson TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
24 Jan Hruska RELAX - GAM s.t.
25 Vitor Rodrigues LIBERTY SEGUROS s.t.
33 Dennis Valyaev KARPIN GALICIA + 2'00
34 Dan Craven BARBOT - HALCÓN s.t.
40 Vidal Chão-Quente CERAMICA FLAMINIA s.t.
43 Gorazd Stangelj LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 2'40
47 Adam Hansen MADEINOX - BRIC - LOULÉ s.t.
GC
1 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 29h01'47
2 Vidal Chão-Quente CERAMICA FLAMINIA + 11'26
3 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 13'15
4 Adam Hansen MADEINOX - BRIC - LOULÉ + 13'32
5 Dennis Valyaev KARPIN GALICIA + 14'17
6 Eladio Jiménez CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 14'37
7 Dan Craven BARBOT - HALCÓN + 16'27
8 Gorazd Stangelj LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 16'58
9 Thomas Riber-Sellebjerg TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 17'10
10 Maxim Iglinskiy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 18'11
11 José Azevedo LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 19'07
12 Bruno Pires LA - MSS - MILANEZA + 19'28
13 Jan Hruska RELAX - GAM s.t.
14 Rodrigo GarcÃa FUERTEVENTURA - CANARIAS TEAM + 19'41
15 André Vital MADEINOX - BRIC - LOULÉ + 19'49