Joost Posthuma (Rabobank) came close to repeating his victory in the penultimate stage of the 2005 race, when he attacked on the final climb today. But Joaquin Rodriguez was too strong, and the Dutchman finished second. "When Moncoutié attacked at the bottom of the climb, I just went with him, I rode my own rhythm," he told Cyclingnews. "The climb was just a little bit too steep for me. I rode my own tempo; I had good legs but in the steepest part of the climb part it just went a tad too fast, so Rodriguez just rode away.
"I'm happy because today was much better than the first mountain stage, where I was really bad in the first five kilometres of the climb because of the weather. Here it's not too cold and it's dry, and my legs are better."
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