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Cancellara loses yellow jersey to Nocentini

Alberto Contador on the attack in Tour de France stage seven to Arcalis

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Twenty-two years since it was first used in 1967, and 12 years after Jan Ullrich rode himself into the maillot jaune en route to victory at the 1997 Tour, AG2R La Mondiale's Rinaldo Nocentini became the next great beneficiary of Andorra Arcalis as the new leader of the 96th Tour de France.

"For me, this is incredible. When I jumped into the break this morning, I never thought about taking the yellow jersey. I rather thought about a stage win," said Nocentini, looking in total disbelief at first.

Unlike Ullrich, however, Nocentini did not win the longest stage of the race at 224 kilometres long. On Friday July 10, that honour went to neo-professional Brice Feillu of Agritubel, who proved strongest out of an original group of nine - which included Nocentini - that stayed away for almost 200 kilometres. The 23-year-old Frenchman from Châteaudun, who this year made his Tour de France debut alongside his elder brother Romain, waited till just after the six-kilometre-to-go banner before leaving his five remaining breakaway companions. Italian Nocentini finished 26 seconds behind.

"I believed I had a chance, as it was a finale to my taste," said Feillu. "With four kilometres to go, the gap was still the same, about 10 seconds, I think. Then it increased about 10 seconds every kilometre, but in the last kilometre it went down again and I got really frightened. I really dug deep then."

However, for experienced campaigner Nocentini, riding his 11th professional season this year and 3:13 down on overnight leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) at the start of the day, it was not the 26-second time gap that was important - it was the distance between him and the Astana duo of Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, because half a kilometre after Agritubel's Feillu attacked, Cancellara was dropped from the chase group containing all the main favourites.

The unexpected on Arcalis

Tipped as a summit finish for the pure climber, 8.7 percent in the opening kilometre before averaging 7.7 percent for the next three, the 10.6 kilometre ascent of Arcalis provided the perfect platform for an early move from the general classification contenders, yet nothing eventuated in the first half, the break ahead appearing to neutralise any moves. After a long truce, Silence-Lotto's Cadel Evans was first to attack but only succeeded in dragging 20 others with him. Evans' Belgian teammate Jurgen Van Den Broeck was the next to go, but he generated the same result.

However, when Contador went inside two kilometres to go, his acceleration could not be matched. As the Spanish Tour champion of 2007 took no prisoners - his arrival 3:26 after Feillu and exactly three minutes behind Nocentini - it saw him just six seconds shy of the race lead by the day's end. The maillot jaune was awarded to the 31-year-old Italian from Montevarchi by the barest of margins. "In the last five to six kilometres, we still had five minutes," said Nocentini, "that's when I though it would be possible to take the jersey."

Nevertheless, Contador, whose familiar victory salute is the smoking gun, has fired a warning shot.

On the highest road in Andorra, the 26-year-old Spaniard was 21 seconds quicker than Evans, last year's Tour runner-up, and leading an 11-man group that included Saxo Bank's Andy and Frank Schleck, Astana's Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer, defending Tour champion Carlos Sastre (Cervelo TestTeam) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream). "I wanted to take advantage of this stage but it was hard with the headwind," Contador said. "I would have liked to get more time on them but I'm happy."

Said Astana director sportif John Bruyneel, "The stage decided who was the strongest. This morning, we didn't give any specific instructions. I just told them [Contador and Armstrong] to talk to each other, and do what they have to do. Alberto was strong; he is a great climber and there are three summit finishes at this Tour. So this was one of his possibilities today."

Any word on Astana leadership?

With the positions of Contador and Armstrong reversed on the classement général, does that make the Spaniard the leader? "No," Contador said, "the race will decide who of us is best."

"That wasn't really to the plan," Armstrong said of Contador's attack that almost earned him the maillot jaune, "but I didn't expect him to go by the plan, so no surprise. It was windy, so it was hard to be alone in the wind. The wind wasn't conducive, you saw a big group there; [there will be] plenty of days at end of this Tour when there are only a couple of guys together."

Armstrong is now eight seconds off the race lead, third overall; teammate Leipheimer is fourth at 39 seconds. The surprise is Garmin-Slipstream's Bradley Wiggins, who finished in the Evans group on Friday and moved up a place to fifth, 46 seconds in arrears. Rounding out the top-10 overall is Andréas Klöden (Astana), Tony Martin (Columbia-HTC), Vande Velde, Andy Schleck and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas).

"I'm really happy, I felt really good," said Vande Velde. "I definitely had to dig deep in the end, and there was quite a headwind. I think tomorrow is going to be hard again, so now it's a matter of recovering. I can't complain about my placing on the overall. I'm in the top ten, so that's all good."

Barcelona: Loads of Gaudi, but in no way gaudy

Not as long as the 252.5km stage from the 1997 Tour, the last occasion the climb of Andorra Arcalis was used was when a 23-year-old German prodigy by the name of Jan Ullrich smashed all and sundry en route to overall victory. The lengthiest stage of the 2009 Tour began in the Antoni Gaudi-inspired city of Barcelona, and with no non-starters from the day before, a field of 177 left Plaça Carlos Büigas at the earlier than usual start time of 10:50 a.m, which equates to early morning for the Barcalona locals.

After 34km, a front group of three - Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel Euskadi), José Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) and Christophe Riblon (AG2r La Mondiale) - combined with a chasing sextet - Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale), Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas), Christophe Kern (Cofidis), Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step), Brice Feillu (Agritubel) and Johannes Fröhlinger (Milram) - to form a nine-strong break.

Double that distance later, our breakaway enjoyed their maximum advantage of 14:20. Over the only real obstacle before the summit finish to Arcalis, the Cat. 1 Col de Serra-Seca measuring 7.7km at 7.1 percent, they still held an 11:48 gap to the Astana-led peloton, AG2R La Mondiale's Riblon cresting the climb in first position.

A double-puncture by maillot jaune Cancellara saw him dive-bomb the descent of the Port del Comte (at km. 127), his extra weight a valued asset as he maniacally threw his bike through the bends, finding himself back in the peloton 55.5km from the finish, some 12 minutes behind the break.

The weather a far cry from Thursday's wet-and-wild Barcelonan adventure, the heat and distance began to take its toll on the lead group. To its credit, the nine still held a 6:33 lead by the start of the climb to Arcalis, 10.7km from the finish, where the peloton continued to be driven by Astana, whose best riders had motioned near its fore.

It was only approaching the five-kilometres to go banner that Feillu of Agritubel managed to leave his five remaining breakaway companions, the peloton five minutes in arrears where nothing was happening at all, apart from the expected exit of Cancellara. Two kilometres from home and with a half-minute lead, Feillu had it in the bag; behind, Silence-Lotto's Evans finally attacked with nothing gained, with only the devastating attack of Contador's managing to stick, which he held all the way to the finish.

For images of stage seven click here

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