Stage 7: It's Pronounced "sil-vahn"

Sylvain Chavenal


Tournus-->Station des Rousses, 165.5k/103 miles, about the distance from Cincinnati to Columbus


Quite incredibly, in the last forty minutes or so in this stage, Sylvain Chavanel (FRA, Quick Step) made an appearance. He pushed on, and on, and on, passing everyone...and just kept going. Not only did he win the stage, but he re-won the yellow jersey for overall leader. It's pretty rare for anyone except a sprinter to win more than one stage in a single TdF. And to get the yellow again, well, it pretty much confirms that his stage 2 win wasn't a fluke.



Sylvain Chavenal

A truly exciting stage, made more so by Rafael Valls (ESP, Footon-Servetto), in his first TdF, making a good try to catch Sylvain in the last few km's. Rafael ended up coming in second, with Juan Manuel Garate (ESP, Rabobank) coming in third. (He won last year's very-exciting Mont Ventoux stage.)

Clap-clap-clap...

And it was a very good day for Quick-Step, as their rider Jerome Pineau kept his polka-dot "King of the Mountains" jersey.





You have to be French to get away with wearing dresses like these.