Stage 7 - Saturday, July 10 2010

• 1. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 4:22:52
• 2. Rafael Valls Ferri (Spa) Footon-Servetto 0:00:57
• 3. Juan Manuel G.rate Cepa (Spa) Rabobank 0:01:27
• 4. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom 0:01:40
• 23. Chris Anker Sorensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank

WOW! 23 rd place for Chris today and in the main group with the contenders!!! Chris was the only other rider besides Andy Schleck to make the front group of contenders! Great job Chris. 6 climbs today and nearly 2 hours of total climbing, this was a serious climbing stage despite the lack of cat 1 or hors Categorie climbs. Basically starting at 2 hours into the stage, the climbing and descending began.

The last two climbs really were very hard especially the early parts of the climb. On the Col de la Croix de la Serra, the first 19 minutes, Chris averaged 372 normalized watts, with the whole climb at 352 watts normalized for 37 minutes.

In the last climb of the day- the Lamoura, the first 11 minutes the hammer went down and Chris had to ride right at his FTP and averaged 394 watts. After that, the pace eased off, but Chris still averaged 373 normalized watts for 32 minutes.

Check out his Power Distribution chart from today. If you examine it closely, you'll see that there is a 'drop-off' at the 400-410 watt 'bin'. This is a good indicator of his threshold power. Since it was only for a short time today at that power, I am going to adjust his FTP up from 380 to 390 watts as he was able to hold that wattage for quite a while today.

Chris is riding really well right now and is going to be a huge help for Andy Schleck in the mountains. Chris is definitely riding better than he was last year this time, so I expect him to be in the top riders for the rest of the Tour.

Download WKO File