Lawson Craddock could not replicate his result from last year’s Tour of California, as Carter Jones climbed to 16th at stage 7 and in the GC for Giant-Alpecin

With three registered climbs, the mountain stage took the peloton to finish on Mount Baldy. Daniel Oss (BMC Racing Team) made the day’s break for the third time this week as 5 riders joined him this time. The leaders never gained more than 4 minutes, as it was Team Sky to set the tempo high while entering the final 30 kilometer.

On the final climb of the day, Mount Baldy it was every man for himself fighting a way up to the finish. In early stages of the climb, Craddock unfortunately got dropped. Jonas could follow the first group and climbed to a 16th at today’s stage and in the overall ranking as well.

Julian Alaphillipe (Etixx – QuickStep) won the stage, showing that he is the best climber. The Frenchmen also takes over the overall lead. With only 2 seconds advantage on Peter Sagan (Tinkoff – Saxo), the race is not yet decided.

“Our plan was to protect Lawson on today’s climbs and to see how strong he would be against the other GC contenders on the final climb. Both Lawson and Carter ended up in a 30 rider front group up to Mount Baldy.

“Early in the climb, Lawson could not handle the high pace that was created by Team Sky, Carter looked for him but it was over. In agreement with Lawson, Carter continued his own race to finish at 16th. Still good teamwork but unfortunately without the desired outcome”, said coach Aike Visbeek.