Tour of California: Konig king of Mt Diablo

Leopold König gave the NetApp-Endura team its first success of the Tour of California, winning the queen stage on top of Mt. Diablo ahead of an aggressive Janier Acevedo, the former race leader from Jamis-Hagens Berman.

The move was no threat, however, to BMC's Tejay van Garderen, who finished in third, only 12 seconds behind the stage winner and virtually secured his first stage race victory since joining the WorldTour.

"I'm thrilled. I'm still soaking it in," van Garderen said, now just one short, sprint-friendly stage from the overall win. He was sure to thank his team, which made itself known at the front of the race all the way up to the final 100m.

"It was an unbelieveable team effort," said van Garderen. "I knew they were strong, I knew they'd be motivated, but they went above and beyond expectations today.

"They made my life somewhat easy, although it still was a hard day."

Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) protected his place in second overall with fourth place on the stage, while the race's best young rider Lawson Craddock (Bontrager) put in another fine ride in seventh.

How it happened:

Stage 7 of the 2013 Tour of California finishing atop Mt. Diablo was the last chance of the race for those with aspirations of moving up in the standings. The day was destined to start with a breakaway, and it wasn't long before seven riders established a move.

Bob Jungels (RadioShack), Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp), Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM), Ben Jacques-Maynes (Jamis-Hagens Berman), Bobby Sweeting (5-hour Energy/Kenda), Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp-Endura) and Michael Morkov (Saxo-Tinkoff) made the move, but they only made it to 10 seconds before being reeled in.

The next effort proved more fruitful, and it came from none other than stage 1 winner Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) who sparked the move with his teammate Juan Antonio Flecha as the peloton headed up to the first KOM on Morgan Territory Road.

Flecha lost contact, but Westra stayed ahead and was joined by mountains classification leader Carter Jones (Bissell), Andy Schleck and his RadioShack teammate Laurent Didier, David De la Cruz (NetApp-Endura), Carlos Verona (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Kristijan Koren (Cannondale) and Chris Butler (Champion System).

After the climb, they were joined by two more, Nathan Brown (Bontrager) and Nate English (5-hour Energy), who up until the race held the record for the Diablo climb.

The breakaway only managed to eke out 3:30 before the peloton began to pull them back, with Jamis pitching in for their man Acevedo.

The leaders had less than a minute as they made the last turn onto the road to the top. As the gradient kicked in, Schleck, Verona, Westra, De la Cruz and Didier left the others behind.

Jamis set a brisk pace to the base of the climb for Acevedo, and one by one, reeled in Brown and Koren before an attack from Lachlan Morton (Garmin-Sharp) and Chad Beyer (Champion System) caught Jones as he was falling back.

Ahead, Westra and De la Cruz dropped the rest, and one by one they were all absorbed.

Jens Voigt (RadioShack) made a counter-attack, and was joined and then passed by Francisco Mancebo (5 Hour Energy).

Mancebo made it up to Westra and De La Cruz, while Voigt went back to the bunch. Mancebo took one look and went right on by. De la Cruz and Westra tried to hold the Spaniard's pace, but it was no use trying. He had gone all in and was going for broke.

Behind, the anticipated attack from Janier Acevedo came with 2.7km to go, and he caught and dropped Westra, De La Cruz and then reached Mancebo.

The Spaniard's gamble went bust, and was left behind as an attack from NetApp's Leopold König came out of the field and to the front with Acevedo.

Behind, Cameron Meyer was losing contact with the yellow jersey group and seeing his podium place in the overall standings slowly fade in the final kilometer.

König rode away from Acevedo to win the stage, but the Colombian could be consoled by the fact that he moved into third overall.

Tejay van Garderen continued his strong performance, coming in third on the stage only 12 seconds behind the winner.

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