Adriano Malori (). Their lead reached 12 minutes, and Hoogerland added to the point in the mountains classification that he already had on the first two categorised climbs of the day, and thus ensured that he would take over the polka-dot jersey, and he, along with Roux and Duque, had ceased trying to stay clear when there were still some 60 km remaining, but Westra and Malori persisted, with Malori only caught with less than three km remaining. A late attack by Jelle Vanendert () and Thomas Voeckler () was caught with a kilometre remaining, and the sprint was eventually won by Edvald Boasson Hagen of (), with fellow Norwegian Thor Hushovd finishing third to retain the yellow jersey. Although there were several heavy rain showers, there were fewer falls than in the previous stage, although GC contender Levi Leipheimer () fell and lost more than a minute. Stage 7 8 July 2011 — Le Mans to Châteauroux, This stage had no climbing points available, and was considered to be very much a chance for the sprint specialists to contest the stage win. The break formed very early in the stage, with two riders from , Gianni Meersman and Mickaël Delage along with Yannick Talabardon () and Pablo Urtasun (). A crash with remaining caused injuries to Bradley Wiggins of and Chris Horner of that caused them to retire from the race, while other GC contenders to lose time included Levi Leipheimer, Ryder Hesjedal, Roman Kreuziger, Rigoberto Urán and Bauke Mollema. The sprint train of dominated the closing stages of the races, allowing Mark Cavendish to take the stage win. Overall leader Thor Hushovd finished in seventh place to retain that position. Stage 8 9 July 2011 — Aigurande to Super Besse, This stage had the first category two climb of the race, and brought the race into the higher climbs of the Massif Central. By the ascent of the day's main climb, in the final 25 km, four riders from the original nine-man break remained clear: Rui Costa (), Christophe Riblon (), Tejay van Garderen () and Cyril Gautier (). On that climb, several riders attempted to attack from the group, of whom Juan Antonio Flecha () and Alexander Vinokourov () attained a considerable margin over the peloton as they pursued the leader. Vinokourov started the stage only 32 seconds behind overall leader Thor Hushovd, and this was thought