Stage 7
Talavera de la Reina
- Friday 26 August 2011
- 183 km
- 2,126 m climbed
- Won by Marcel Kittel
The road
At the start
No ranked climbs, and no guarantees
Chavanel still leads, by fifteen seconds from Moreno and sixteen from Nibali, who took bonus seconds off the descent into Córdoba. Today crosses the Sistema Central without a single categorised climb, but the road is lumpy the whole way and a break very nearly stole this stage in 2009. With two mountain days coming, the sprinters' teams have every reason not to let that happen twice.
How it was won
- 8 km to go
The last of the four
Maté, Fouchard, Cabello and Houanard touched eight minutes and still had 2:43 with fifty kilometres left, but Sky's acceleration through a crash-delayed bunch cuts it to forty seconds in twenty. Fouchard is the final domino, eight kilometres out.
- At the line
Talavera de la Reina
Kittel comes off his last lead-out man with 200 metres to go and holds Sagan and Freire. Behind him Tyler Farrar tangles with Michal Golas at full speed and goes down in front of the whole sprint, taking Golas's teeth and Michele Scarponi's afternoon with him.
The result
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcel Kittel | Skil - Shimano | 4:47:59 |
| 2 | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | +0:00 |
| 3 | Óscar Freire | Rabobank Cycling Team | +0:00 |
The route on real terrain, every moment pinned to the kilometre it happened on — and the GPX to ride it yourself.