Alberto Contador of Tinkoff Saxo is one stage away from winning the Critérium du Dauphiné title after snatching the overall lead of the race on stage seven.
Stage seven was a 160 kilometres stage from Ville-la-Grand to Finhaut-Emosson and started without Michal Kwiatkowski, Jack Bobridge, Damiano Caruso and Yoann Offredo with Lotto's Jurgen Roelandts abandoning early in the stage.
Fourteen riders in Westra, Visconti, Kadri, Gautier, Gallopin, Brendle, De Marchi, van Avermaet, Silin, Trofimov, Alaphilippe, Hesjedal, Boom and Schorn formed the main break and were 5.40 ahead as Lieuwe Westra led the escapers over the top of the Col du Corbier.
De Marchi took the maximum ten points on top of the Pas de Morgins but as the lead went out to 7.45, Westra was now the virtual leader on the road ahead of Chris Froome.
Alberto Contador, who was twelve seconds down on Froome's time going into the stage, ordered his Tinkoff Saxo team to the front and the gap started to drop.
Approaching the Hors Category Col de la Forclaz, the gap had come down to 6.50 and then with Team Sky on the front. the gap was down to 5.01 with 23.5kms to go.
Katusha's Yury Trofimov, who had already won a stage in this race, went away, only to be joined by his team mate Egor Silin along with Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Belisol).
They were 5.17 ahead of a peloton with twenty kilometres left which had British rider Adam Yates on the back with Jens Voigt of Trek Factory Racing.
Trofimov attacked again and was first over the Col de la Forclaz with eighteen kilometres to go.
Stiln joined Trofimov on the winding roads which were ensuring that the gap stayed at 5.40 inside the final nine kilometres.
On to the final climb of the Finhaut-Emosson which in parts had ramps of 18% and Geraint Thomas was on the front for Team Sky whilst Contador was on his own.
The gap dropped to 4.31 with 5.6kms to go. Then with two kilometres to go, Alberto Contador attacked. Froome, still bandaged from his crash on stage six seemed unable to respond and the Spaniard took an eight second lead.
Up front, Lieuwe Westra of Astana had stormed up and caught Trofimov and Stiln and was able to pass them and take the win in 4.32.51, some seven seconds ahead of Trofimov and Stijn.
Fourth was Alberto Contador, who had passed an number of riders, and he finished 1.33 down on Westra's time. However, Froome was behind him and the clock counted down and Froome finished in sixth place twenty seconds behind Contador who now leads the race going into its final stage by eight seconds.
Contador told Eurosport that he was pleased that his efforts had paid off but the race was a long way from over, whilst Westra said it was crazy at the end but he was delighted to have won.