Chris Froome (Sky) has taken Stage 7 of the Dauphine Libere. The Briton jumped away from Tejay van Garderen (BMC) on the climb to the finish to take the mountainous, 155-km ride from Montmelian to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc in 4:24:17. Van Garderen finished second at 0:17, and Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) outsprinted Benat Intxausti (Movistar) for third at 0:41. Van Garderen’s finish has given him the maillot jaune with one stage remaining.

The hostilities began early. At four km, Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin), Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Soudal), Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Tiago Machado (Katusha), Pieter Serry (Etixx-Quick Step), Riccardo Zoidl (Trek), Chris Anker Sorensen (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank), Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling), Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Kenny Elissonde (FDJ), Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka), and Bjorn Thurau (Bora-Argon 18) went off of the front. Twelve other riders bridged up to the move—Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar); David De La Cruz (Etixx-Quick Step); Bauke Mollema and Riccardo Zoidl (Trek); Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank); Marcel Wyss (IAM Cycling); Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida); Pierre Rolland (Europcar); Daniel Navarro, Nicolas Edet, and Luis Mate (all from Cofidis); Kenny Elissonde (FDJ); Meintjes; and Bartosz Huzarski, Jose Mendes, and Dominic Nerz (all from Bora-Argon 18). The break led the bunch by 4:00 at 75 km.

Sky took over at the front. The pursuit cut the escape’s advantage to less than one minute at 100 km, but the break members started attacking each other. With 38 km remaining, Rolland attacked, Navarro countered, dropped Rolland, and took Zoidl with him. Eventually, Huzarski and Castroviejo bridged up to the move. The foursome led the field at the base of the day’s final climb.

Sky led the field up the Category 1 ascent to the finish. The British squad shelled riders, including maillot jaune Vincenzo Nibali. With 3.5 km remaining, Froome attacked. Seeing a chance to reclaim the maillot jaune, van Garderen joined him. The two riders collaborated for two km. With 1.5 km left, Froome dropped his companion in an attempt to take the stage and the overall lead. Van Garderen limited his losses, however, and took the golden fleece.

Froome was more than satisfied with his team’s work and satisfied with his form. “I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “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.

“As I said, I can’t thank my teammates enough, and it was special to have my wife at the finish. That gave me an added incentive to go hard and see her.”

Van Garderen was delighted at having retaken the race lead and added that his tactic for Stage 7, the race’s final stage, was to stay on Froome’s wheel. "I am absolutely thrilled," the American said. "We tried to stay positive after that crazy stage on Friday. We took all the positives we could out of it. The guys in the breakaway had to spend so much energy yesterday, so we thought it might catch up with them today.

"The tactic tomorrow is going to be to stay glued to Chris's wheel and try not to give him any room. It is going to be a tough fight. I am sure the breakaway is going to go crazy because it is the last stage of the race, and it is technical again. But the team is ready, I am ready, and we are going to fight to the finish line."

In the overall, van Garderen leads Froome by 0:18 and Intxausti at 0:45. Stage 8, the race’s last stage, will be a rugged, 156.5-km ride from Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc to Modane Valfrejus, will six categorized climbs, including a Category 1 ascent to the finish. Expect a battle royal between Froome and van Garderen on the last climb. Who will take the maillot jaune? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!