Spain's Luis Leon Sanchez claimed his maiden Tour de France victory when he took the seventh stage with a bold attack in the finale of a 159-km ride from Brioude to Aurillac yesterday.

The Caisse d'Epargne rider attacked in the descent of the Col de St Jean de Donne and never looked back, beating German Stefan Schumacher by six seconds.

The German won the sprint of the favorites' group to beat Italian Filippo Pozzato.

Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen retained the overall leader's yellow jersey after finishing in Schumacher's group.

"We defended it very well and I'll have it for another day tomorrow," said the Team Columbia rider.

"I have a lot of confidence and this morning I had recuperated very well."

Kirchen leads Australian Cadel Evans by six seconds in the overall standings, with Schumacher third 16 seconds adrift.

Italy's Damiano Cunego, who was one of the favorites for the overall victory, suffered in the last ascent of the day and lost 33 seconds to Kirchen, dropping to 17th overall.

French riders, who were on the attack since the race left Brest last Saturday, had a bad day, with former French champion Christophe Moreau, Lilian Jegou and John Gadret pulling out injured.

Some 100kms from the line, the peloton split following the crash of Cunego and Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha, who quickly went back into the main bunch.

On a nervous day, several breakaway attempts, including two from David Millar, were controlled by the peloton.

The last of them was launched at the base of the category-two Col d'Entremont by Sanchez, joined by fellow Spaniards David de la Fuente and Josep Jufre Pou and Italian Vicenzo Nibali.

Schumacher, who had lost the yellow jersey following a crash on Thursday, attacked the peloton in the Cote de St Jean de Donne.

Cunego did not resist and was dropped in the first slopes of the ascent while De La Fuente earned the polka dot jersey for the best climber by crossing the summit line in first position.

The breakaway was then caught by Schumacher and the favorites' group but Sanchez attacked again in the descent and easily won, pointing at the sky in memory of his dead brother, who died three years ago in a quadbike accident.

"He is up there and I win the stage (for him)," he said.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily July 12, 2008)