This 7th stage doesn't really have potential to make any differences - it's likely to be a day for the sprinters to show themselves.
Vande Velde was the first rider to attack on this stage, but the peloton reeled him and the other 15-18 attackers in rather fast. So, the only remarkable performance on the first many kilometres was the fact that Capecchi won the two first mountains prints and took 10 points, advancing to a 3rd place in the Mountain Points Ranking.
In the end, a group of 9 and 2 got away. Mugerli and Kinney had a small advantage over a group of 9 consisting of Summerhill, Leezer, Lagutin, Ongarato, Krivtsov, Poos, Stenersen, Ladagnous and Capecchi - and Vande Velde a bit after those 9.
Especially Murgerli seemed interested in the break as he attacked away from Kinney for mountain points. Kinney dropped back to the chasing group while Mugerli stayed on the front. Eventually, he was caught, though. With 100 km to go, the front riders had a gap of 6 minutes to the peloton. Shortly after, they experienced some problems...
Mugerli scored a couple of more points on the last climb and took Capecchi's 3rd place. And with 80 km to go, they still had a gap of 8 minutes. But behind, Unicef and Philips - Hummel had increased the speed. And very surprisingly, Bos had managed to get over the hill. Shortly after, he was dropped, though, probably because of his own team's high pace.
The peloton had managed to decrease the gap with 4 minutes, but with Unicef having dropped back to help Bos, only a few riders of Philips seemed interested in catching the front riders. The gap still decreased, but now in a more slowly way - meaning that with 40 km to go, the gap was still at 4 minutes.
With 30 km to go, the peloton finally started cooperating, and with 20 km to go, the gap was down to less than a minute. In front, the attacks started with Mugerli leading out - he had been skipping relays for a while and therefore had plenty of power. Stenersen, Kinney and Poos countered while Krivtsov missed out. The rest were dropped and caught by the P shortly after.
8 km to go, and yet another attack: Kinney and Mugerli tried getting away, just as the group was about the be caught. Stenersen and Poos gave up, Kinney couldn't follow Mugerli - and with 5 km to go, it was also over for Mugerli. Instead, the sprinting teams organized themselves. Moletta in front, followed by Gautier, Pineau, Bonnet, Bono, Aulas, Castano, Konovalovas, Coyot, Valjavec -- so basically only to proper 'sprinters' at the front: Bonnet and Aulas.
Bonnet did the only reasonable thing and followed his lead out man, Gautier, while pretty much everyone else seemed to 'go alone'.
Following recent media reports, B&O seemed pretty happy of Klemme's performances at this race - they may have to change their expectations, though, as their rider crashed during the last kilometres.
Bonnet takes a very dominant win! And surprisingly, it's Castano (Festina) and Ulissi (on loan from Festina to Philips) fighting it out for the 2nd place - where's the sprinters?!
