Solo attack on summit finish spells win on Giro Stage 7

A young Belgian cyclist took a solo flyer on the mountaintop finish in Montevergine di Mercogliano to win Stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia.

Bart de Clerq, left, of Omega Pharma Lotto held off a hard-charging group of four General Classification contenders led by Michele Scarponi, who missed the win by half a wheel-length.

Overall leader Pieter Weening (Rabobank) held onto the maglia rosa for a another day, as Scarponi moved up from 7th to 5th place overall.

Two climbs

The relatively short stage from Maddaloni to  Montevergine di Mercogliano — 110km (68 miles) — was punctuated by a category 2 climb near the middle. It ended with the 9-mile climb up several hairpin turns, the first of 8 such summit finishes scheduled for the Giro this year.

A five-man breakaway earlier in the stage never got much of a gap and was reeled in near the base of the final climb. De Clerq attacked about halfway up and continued making steady gains over a 30-man lead group.

A couple of cyclists launched chases but couldn't catch him, and de Clerq held a 24-second lead with less than a mile to go.

Late sprint

Suddenly Scarponi (Lampre) launched his sprint, followed by Stefano Garzelli (Acqua Sapone), Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) and Roman Kreuzinger (Astana). Apparently Scarponi timed his sprint just a little late, as he caught, but failed to pass, de Clerq at the line.

In addition to winning the stage, de Clerq earned the mountains competition jersey; Alessandro Petacchi retained the points jersey.

Top 10 overall: