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Agritubel's Brice Feillu won stage seven of the Tour de France in Andorra-Arcalis as Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r) rode into the yellow jersey.

Astana's Alberto Contador launched a big attack two kilometres from the finish and dropped his rivals for the overall win, but still fell six seconds short of taking the yellow jersey.

Britain's Bradley Wiggins (Garmin) turned in the best climbing performance of his career to finish level on time with Lance Armstrong (Astana), Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) and Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), 22 seconds down on Contador.

Andy Schleck's team-mate Fabian Cancellara, who had worn the maillot jaune since the opening time-trial, was dropped early on the final climb, and finished more than nine minutes off the pace.

Feillu had escaped right at the start of the mammoth 224 stage as part of a nine-man break, whose lead ballooned to over 14 minutes, as Astana dictated the pace of the peloton behind.

The strength of the Kazakh backed outfit was there for all to see, as they remained at the front of the pack for almost the entirety of the stage, cutting the leaders' advantage to 11 minutes as they went over the other major climb of the day - the first-category Col de Serra-Seca - 97 kilometres from home.

Cancellara was the victim of a puncture that necessitated a hair-raising descent of the Serra-Seca, before he swiftly picked up another puncture in the valley just minutes later.

The gap to the favourites, meanwhile, had plummeted to just six minutes as the peloton approached the foot of the final climb, and Haimar Zubeldia took over at the front for the Astana team.

Further up the road, Aleksandr Kuschynski was dropped along with Jerome Pineau (BBox Bouygues Telecom), as Christophe Kern (Cofidis) tried an attack, before being swiftly chased down by Euskaltel's Egoi Martinez.

With the yellow jersey contenders continuing to keep their powder dry at the head of the peloton, which by now had been whittled down significantly, Feillu could contain his enthusiasm no longer.

He surged clear of his fellow escapees with just over four kilometres remaining, and despite the best efforts of Ag2r duo Nocentini and Christophe Riblon, was not to be caught.

His maiden Tour victory comes just a year after brother and team-mate Romain Feillu took the yellow jersey for a stage.

Further down the mountain, Evans launched a big attack, though was unable to shed his rivals, and it was only in the final two kilometres that it all blew apart, after Contador burst clear with an attack that nobody could follow.

Andy Schleck led the chase as the Spaniard began to put time into his rivals, though further ahead Nocentini managed to cross the line with enough of an advantage to secure the yellow jersey.

Contador finally crossed the line 21 seconds ahead of the Armstrong group to leapfrog his American team-mate in the general classification, while Wiggins, despite his status as a time-trial specialist, managed to cling on gamely to the Armstrong/Schleck group.

Stage eight sees the riders travel 176 kilometres from Andorra-la-Vieille to Saint-Girons, a stage that could again see the yellow jersey change hands.

Stage 8 LIVE at 11am on Saturday 11th July on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe

Michael FitzGerald / Eurosport