Chris Froome wins Criterium du Dauphine stage seven solo

Chris Froome climbed to an impressive solo victory on stage seven of the Criterium du Dauphine but was denied the overall race lead by Tejay van Garderen.

With former race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) having already been dropped and their other rivals struggling, Froome (Team Sky) and Van Garderen (BMC Racing) went head to head for the stage win and yellow jersey on the final climb to the summit finish at Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc.

Froome distanced Van Garderen with an attack 1.6km out and won by 17 seconds, but that was not enough to overturn his 39-second deficit to the American in the general classification.

With bonus seconds on the day taken into account, Van Garderen now leads Froome by 18 seconds overall with one stage remaining, while Benat Intxausti (Movistar) has climbed to third overall, 45 seconds back, after finishing fourth on the stage.

Froome, who claimed his third win of the season, told teamsky.com: “I couldn’t be happier. The guys rode out of their skin and buried themselves to make it as hard as possible. On the back of yesterday’s stage, which had a lot of the main contenders in the break, it made sense to do that. That’s one of the beauties of stage racing: you can’t give everything one day and then expect to back it up the next.

“Today was a really good show of where I’m at [heading into the Tour de France]. I’ve still got some work to do, and I’m not at my best yet, but being able to ride a stage like that shows I’m not far off and I’m really happy.”

Nibali was dropped with 11km of the deciding climb remaining and finished 3min 58sec down on Froome, which saw him plummet to 11th overall, 3min 5sec back.

Britain's Simon Yates is fifth overall, 1min 29sec adrift, after battling to 11th place on the race's 155km queen stage. 

The Dauphine concludes on Sunday with a 156.5km eighth stage that ends with a summit finish at Modane Valfréjus.

Froome added: “Tejay has ridden a really good race and BMC did a really good time trial on Tuesday, which put almost 30 seconds into us. I still have a bit to make up on him. It’s not an easy stage tomorrow and the race isn’t over until it’s over. We’ll keep fighting all the way ‘til the end."

Stage seven result

1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 4:24:17
2 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, +17secs
3 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka, +41
4 Benat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar, same time
5 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, +54
6 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +1:08
7 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +1:15
8 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Garmin, +1:25
9 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida, +1:34
10 Daniel Navarro (Esp) Cofidis, +1:45

General classification

1 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, +26:59:27
2 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +18sces  
3 Benat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar, +46
4 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida, +1:10
5 Simon Yates (GB) Orica-GreenEdge, +1:29
6 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +1:39
7 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +1:45
8 Dan Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin, +2:29
9 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Garmin, +2:39
10 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, +2:46