Stage 7: Gerdemann grabs the gold

T-Mobile's young Linus Gerdemann shook up the Tour de France with a stellar win on the Tour's hardest stage so far.

Gerdemann was one of 15 riders in a long breakaway that shattered quickly on the day's last climb, the Col de la Colombiére. José Ivan Gutierrez and David de la Fuente were the first to go, but Gerdemann and Dmitriy Fofonov bridged and then attacked, and that was the last that anyone else would see of Gerdemann, who stretched his lead with an aggressive descent to Le Grand-Bornand.

Gerdemann takes over the yellow jersey and the young riders' white jersey. Naturally, he was also named the day's most combative rider.

Top 10:
1) Linus Gerdemann, T-Mobile, Germany, in 4:53:13
2) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel, Spain, at :40
3) de la Fuente, Saunier Duval, Spain, at 1:39
4) Mauricio Soler, Barloworld, Colombia, at 2:14
5) Laurent Lefevre, Bouygues Telecom, France, at 2:21
6) Fabian Wegmann, Gerolsteiner, Germany, at 3:32
7) Juan Manuel Garate, Quick Step, Spain, at 3:38
8) Xavier Florencio, Bouygues Telecom, Spain, at 3:38
9) Christophe Moreau, AG2R, France, at 3:38
10) Alejandro Valverde, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain, at 3:38

Overall standings after Stage 7:
1) Linus Gerdemann, T-Mobile, Germany, in 34:43:40
2) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain, at 1:24
3) David de la Fuente, Saunier Duval, Spain, at 2:45
4) Laurent Lefevre, Bouygues Telecom, France, at 2:55
5) Mauricio Soler, Barloworld, Colombia, at 3:05
6) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany, at 3:39
7) Vladimir Gusev, Discovery Channel, Russia, at 3:51
8) Vladimir Karpets, Caisse d'Epargne, Russia, at 3:52
9) Mikel Astarloza, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain, at 3:55
10) Thomas Dekker, Rabobank, Netherlands, at 3:57