Alberto Contador (Astana) finally did what most expected of him in this year's Giro. He took over as leader of the race but it wasn't easy and it definitely is not final. Italian Emanuele Sella (CSF Group Navigare) won his second straight stage by going into an early breakaway on what proved to be a tough day for Team Astana.

American Levi Leipheimer and German Andreas Klöden were all dropped on the penultimate climb and lost a huge amount of time today. Even Contador got distanced briefly on that same climb but was able to fight back to join the rest of the contenders on the descent just before the final push up to the summit of the Passo Fedaia. Once on that climb, it was mostly tempo until the final 5k when Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval - Scott) jumped clear. Contador and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) took up the chase and for a moment distanced both Danilo Di Luca (Team LPR Brakes) and Gilberto Simoni (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni). In the end, it was a game of yo-yo amongst the GC contenders and Contador proved to not have enough and lost some seconds to the others. We hope that he can gain some ground in tomorrow's uphill time trial to the summit of Plan de Corones. The two remaining time trials mean his rivals would have to put some minutes into him to have a chance, so the pressure is all on them.

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It was an exciting day at the Giro for the 7th Stage as Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) was able to put time on most of his rivals while his teammate Gabriele Bosisio won today's mountain top finish.

Riding like an angry man possessed (seriously, what's up with him?), Di Luca and Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) managed to put a few seconds on Alberto Contador (Astana) and almost a minute on everyone else. Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) brought the main group containing the other GC contenders in at 51 seconds behind the Di Luca duo.

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The biggest surprise for me today was Di Luca's strength. Today, he single handedly shouted to the rest of the peloton that he is bent on defending his crown. Personally, I didn't give him much of a chance against this year's field. Boy did he prove me wrong. With about 20 km to go, Di Luca bolted out of the peloton in chase of Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Scott) and the only riders who had the ability to respond were Riccardo Riccò, Alberto Contador and Joaquím Rodríguez (Caisse d'Epargne). While Rodriguez eventually faded, Di Luca and Riccò pushed hard to gain as much time on their rivals as possible. It seemed that Di Luca wanted to really make a statement against his rivals today. He definitely had that "killer" look to him.

Meanwhile, Contador did impress me by being able to follow this move just 10 days after he was basking in the sun on a beach somewhere. He did fade in the last kilometer but it proves that Alberto is here to play. It can be assumed that he will get stronger and stronger as the Giro goes on, which does not bode well for his rivals as he is a better time trialist and climber when he's at his best.

On a side note, Levi Leipheimer (Astana) lost 24 seconds yesterday thanks to being caught behind a stalled motorcycle that caused many riders to clip out of their pedals. Several teams protested to the race organizers saying that the "crash" happened within 3 km from the finish so therefore should deserve the same time. Well, the organizers did not agree. What BS! Let's hope Levi will gain all of that back and more on Tuesday's time trial stage.

Top 10 Results for Stage 7
1 Gabriele Bosisio (Ita) LPR Brakes - Ballan
2 Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Tinkoff Credit Systems
3 Emanuele Sella (Ita) CSF Group Navigare
4 Felix Rafael Cardenas (Col) Barloworld
5 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) LPR Brakes
6 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval - Scott
7 Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) Saunier Duval - Scott
8 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana
9 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner
10 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas

See the complete results here.