SERFAUS, Austria, June 17, 2011 (AFP) – Belgian Thomas De Gendt held off
the pressure of Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck in the final climb of the day to
claim victory in the Tour of Switzerland seventh stage Friday.

Italian Damiano Cunego retained the race leader’s yellow jersey after his
rivals failed to put him to the sword in the 222.8 km ride from Vaduz in
Liechtenstein to here, the final climbing stage of the race.

Leopard rider Schleck, a two-time runner-up in the Tour de France, finished
35secs adrift of Vacansoleil rider De Gendt with Cunego leading home a small
group containing all his rivals 4min 37sec later.

In the overall standings Lampre rider Cunego maintained a lead of 1:23 and
1:36 on Dutch pair Bauke Mollema and Steven Kruijswijk of Rabobank.

Defending champion Frank Schleck (Leopard) remains fourth at 1:41 while
American Levi Leipheimer of RadioShack is fifth at 1:59.

De Gendt, whose last major victory came in the first stage of Paris-Nice,
was a deserving winner having attacked into a headwind 22km from home and with
a 13 km climb to the finish line up ahead.

With Cunego’s peloton out of contention at over six minutes in arrears, it
was left to the riders who had been in a 15-man breakaway with De Gendt to
stop him from riding to victory.

Despite Schleck eventually taking things in hand 10km from home, De Gendt
dug deep to hold the Luxemburger off and come over the finish line triumphant,
but in disbelief.

“I was really thinking he was going to catch me in the final kilometres. I
just had to give it full gas to try and stay in front,” said De Gendt,
Vacansoleil’s second winner this week after Borut Bozic sprinted to victory on
stage five.

Schleck, who is using the race to hone his form for his yellow jersey bid
at the Tour de France next month, had suffered an unexpected slump Thursday
early on the final climb to Malbun in Liechtenstein.

He appeared keen to make amends and, after a failed earlier attempt by a
group of 17 riders, he got into a 15-man group which broke free 84 kilometres
into the race.

They took their lead to a maximum of 8:25, with Schleck leading the group
over the unclassified summit of Fluelapass to take all the mountain points.

The Rabobank team of Laurens Ten Dam, wearing the green jersey as leader of
the climbers competition, finally smelled the danger and took command of the
peloton in what became a vain bid to chase Schleck down.

Fifty kilometres further on Schleck soloed over the category two
Norbertshohe climb to close to within a point of Ten Dam, and the
Luxemburger’s second place finish was sufficient for him to take the green
jersey.

In the closing kilometres of the climb attempts by American Tom Danielson
of Garmin and Damiano Caruso of Liquigas were quickly countered by Cunego’s
group.

The Italian should have no problems holding the lead until after Saturday’s
stage, which is set for a bunch sprint. But whether his 1:59 lead on
Leipheimer is enough to hold on after Sunday’s time trial over 32.1 km remains
to be seen.

Stage
1. Thomas De Gendt (BEL/VCD) 5hr 38min 42sec, 2. Andy Schleck (LUX/LEO) at
35secs, 3. Jose Joaquin Rojas (ESP/MOV) 48, 4. Christian Vandevelde (USA/GRM)
51, 5. Alberto Losada (ESP/KAT) 54, 6. Sergey Lagutin (UZB/VCD) 1min 33sec, 7.
Jan Bakelants (BEL/OLO) 1:34, 8. Marco Marcato (ITA/VCD) 2:30, 9. George
Hincapie (USA/BMC) same time, 10. Manuele Boaro (ITA/SBS) s.t.
Selected: 17. Damiano Cunego (ITA/LAM) 4:39, 18. Bauke Mollema (NED/RAB)
s.t., 22. Steven Kruijswijk (NED/RAB) s.t., 23. Frank Schleck (LUX/LEO) s.t.,
25. Levi Leipheimer (USA/RSH) s.t., 61. Luke Roberts (AUS/SBS) s.t.,
DNF: Danilo Di Luca (ITA/KAT), Philip Deignan (IRL/RSH), Jeffry Louder
(USA/BMC), Mirco Lorenzetto (ITA/AST), Daniel Sesma (ESP/EUS)

General classification
1. Damiano Cunego (ITA/LAM) 27hr 09min 49sec, 2. Bauke Mollema (NED/RAB)
1:23, 3. Steven Kruijswijk (NED/RAB) 1:36, 4. Frank Schleck (LUX/LEO) 1:41, 5.
Levi Leipheimer (USA/RSH) 1:59, 6. Jakob Fuglsang (DEN/LEO) 2:38, 7. Laurens
Ten Dam (NED/RAB) 3:10, 8. Giampaolo Caruso (ITA/KAT) 3:11, 9. Mathias Frank
(SUI/BMC) 3:20, 10. Tejay Van Garderen (USA/THR) 3:22
Selected: 11. Tom Danielson (USA/GRM) 4:51, 20. Andy Schleck (LUX/LEO) 16:18