The seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011, from Maddaloni to Montevergine, was only 110 kilometers long but did end with a mountain top finish!

As expected this final climb decided the stage victory and it was taken surprisingly by neo pro Bart de Clercq who attacked at 7 kilometers from the top and thus won this difficult stage!

The summary of the 7th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011: Maddaloni > Montevergine

In the first part of the race, several riders tried to get away, without any real success. Five riders finally managed to really get away, including the Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli), Lars Bak (Team HTC-Highroad), Frederico Canuti (Colnago-CSF Inox), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) and Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step). Their highest gap was just over 3'20".

In the climb of the Serra Della Strada their gap went back down to about two and a halve minutes and the peloton was than led by the Rabobank team which got some help from three riders of the Acqua & Sapone team. Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma -Lotto) and Pierre Cazaux (Euskaltel Euskadi) decided to start the pursuit of the leading riders. A bit later, Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), who's celebrating his 28th birthday makes the jump to them, while Cazaux drops back and Lang gets a mechanical problem.

Canuti arrives first on top, followed by Pineau, Visconti, Bak and Montaguti and Hoogerland at 1'14", while the peloton follows at 2'05".
After several kilometers chasing, Hoogerland reaches the leading group, immediately accelerates and "wakes up" the 5 other riders. The peloton accelerates as well and reduces the gap to 1 minute at the foot of the final climb which contains 23 180° turns.

At the foot of the climb, Hoogerland accelerates again and he gets company from Canuti, Bak and Montaguti. The two other riders drop back and the peloton with the favourite riders approaches at 9 seconds. Bak accelerates and the others are taken back. His gap at 10 km from the finish is 24 seconds. Several attacks follow and he thus soon gets taken back. At seven kilometers from the top, neo pro Bart de Clercq (Omega Pharma-Lotto) attacks and quickly builds up a gap of over 20 seconds on quite a big group. At a bit less than 4 kilometers from the finish, Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli) starts chasing behind him, followed by Carlos Ochoa (Androni Giocattoli) and Stefano Pirazzi (Colnago-CSF Inox). The peloton speeds up and Pirazzi is taken back.

At one kilometer from the finish, De Clercq still has a 20 seconds gap on the chasing group. Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) places a violent attack from this group and sprints to the wheel of the Belgian rider ... but still only finishes second!! He's followed by Roman Kreuziger (Astana), Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas). An exciting finish, with a deserved win by De Clercq.

Pieter Weening (Rabobank) keeps his pink leaders jersey after this mountain stage by finishing in the group on the 18th place.

The video summary of the 7th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011

Bart de Clercq's win can be replayed in the video below:

The classifications of the Giro d'Italia 2011 after the 7th stage

The stage classification for the 7th stage: Maddaloni > Montevergine di Mercogliano

1/ Bart de Clercq (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 2h54'47"
2/ Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD)
3/ Roman Kreuziger (Astana)
4/ Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone)
5/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale)

The general classification after the 7th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011

1/ Pieter Weening (Rabobank) – 23h09'59"
2/ Marco Pinotti (Team HTC-Highroad) - +0'02"
3/ Konstantsin Sivtsov (Team HTC-Highroad)
4/ Christophe Le Mével (Team Garmin-Cervélo) - +0'05"
5/ Michele Scarponi (Lampre–ISD) - +0'14"

Points classification

No changes in the top of the points classification even though Christophe Le Mével (Team Garmin-Cervélo) approaches Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) a bit more:

1/ Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) - 48 points
2/ Christophe Le Mével (Team Garmin-Cervélo) - 41
3/ Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) - 38
4/ Roberto Ferrari (Androni Giocattoli) - 30
5/ Angel Vicioso (Androni Giocattoli) - 28

King of the Mountains classification

Thanks to his first place in this stage with mountain top finish, Bart de Clercq also makes his entry in the top 5 of the the King of the Mountains classification and even takes the first place:

1/ Bart De Clercq (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 11 points
2/ Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) - 10
3/ Federico Canuti (Colnago-CSF Inox) - 9
4/ Gianluca Brambilla (Colnago-CSF Inox) - 8
5/ Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) - 7

Best young rider

Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) is still leading the best young rider's classification while Roman Kreuziger and Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) climb to the top 3:

1/ Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) - 23h10'27"
2/ Roman Kreuziger (Astana) - +0'16"
3/ Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) - +0'24"
4/ Francesco Masciarelli (Astana) - +0'31"
5/ Kevin Seeldrayers (Quick Step) - +0'54"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2011

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