Tour de France stage 7 preview: The mountains have arrived, let the Tour de France begin

July 9, 8:59 PMCycling ExaminerJames Raia

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BARCELONA — With all due respect to the fast-paced 508 miles the remaining 177 cyclists have completed in the past six days, the Tour de France begins Friday.

In the seventh and longest day stage of this year's race, riders will negotiate the first of seven mountain stages with a 224-kilometer (139-mile) trek to Arcalis, Andorra.

It will be the first day of the three-week race the contenders for the overall title will showcase their riding skills over five categorized climbs. And it will be the first day the pretenders will lose substantial time.

The seventh stage will also finally bring some certainty to the uncertainty surrounding Astana, the team of Levi Leipheimer of Santa Rosa.

Since last September, when Lance Armstrong joined a squad that already included Alberto Contador of Spain, the 2007 Tour de France winner, and two-time race runner-up Andreas Kloden of Germany, the omnipresent question has remained: Who's the leader of the powerful squad?

Leipheimer, currently in fifth overall and trailing race leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo-Bank) of Switzerland by 31 seconds, is among the estimated dozen potential stage 7 winners.

“I think there's enough talent on the other teams that it will determine who's the strongest on our team,” said Leipheimer, who's competing in the Tour de France for the seventh time. “I think we have three or four guys who can win, but there are plenty of others.”

Leipheimer acquired his second career stage win Tueday with Astana captured fourth stage team time trial.

In addition to potential Astana winners, defending titlist Carlos Sastre (Cervelo TestTeam) of Spain, Denis Menchov (Rabobank) of Russia, Andy and Frank Schleck (Saxo-Bank) of Luxembourg and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream) of Lemont, Ill., are all key potential mountain stage winners.

And whether it's a favorite or a surprising rider, one thing is certain — there'll be a new race leader after the seventh stage.

Cancellara, the former world road titlist, has maintained the race lead since his opening stage win last Saturday in Monaco. He's leading Armstrong by a fraction of second, with Contador third, trailing by 19 seconds.

Cancellara, however, is not a climber and he expects his race margin will evaporate during as the mountains of the Tour de France arrive.

 According to several reports, Contador visited Andorra several during his final Tour de France preparation and is keying on the first mountain stage to establish his mark as Astana's leader.

If Contador is successful, he'll do so at the top of a mountain only one previously visited in Tour de France history. Part of the Vallnord skiing complex, Arcalis peaks at 6,429 feet.

Twelve years ago, now-retired Jan Ullrich of Germany, a key rival of Armstrong's for several years, left climbing specialists Richard Virenque of France and Marco Pantani of Italy in the waning miles and rode to more than a one-minute solo victory.

With predicted inclement weather adding to the equation, the 10.6-kilometer (6.6-mile) final climb in stage 7 has a seven percent average grade.

It will follow four other climbs, most notably the category 1 effort halfway through the stage to Col de Serra-Seca. It lasts eight kilometers (five miles) with an average seven percent gradient.

Following the seventh stage, two additional mountain stages remain in the Pyrenees. Stage 8 will take the field from Andorra back into France on Saturday with a new finish city, St. Girons.

Sunday's stage 9 will progress from St. Gaudens to Tarbes, a tortuous trek that will take riders over Col d'Aspin La Mongie and Col du Tourmalet, three of the event's most notorious climbs.