Tour de France embarks on 1st mountain stage

[July 07, 2012]  TOMBLAINE, France (AP) -- Riders have started the seventh stage of the Tour de France, a 123-mile trek across the Vosges mountains that will end with the first of the race's three summit finishes.

The pack has been thinned of at least a half dozen competitors after crashes in Friday's sixth stage hospitalized multiple riders with race-ending injuries, including a punctured lung and broken ribs.

Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara wears the race leader's yellow jersey for the seventh consecutive day but the time trial specialist will be hard pressed to keep it as the race hits the first high mountains, ending on the Planche des Belles Filles and its steep 14 percent ramps.

[Associated Press]

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