‘Need the very best legs on such a finish’ Van der Poel was realistic shortly after the finish after losing his yellow jersey. “On such a finish, I need my very best legs and I already knew I wouldn’t have them,” he said to the NOS camera. “I’m realistic enough to see that the yellow jersey would be gone today. But I enjoyed it in this special place, the Mûr-de-Bretagne.”
There’s Van der Poel! He has to concede more than a minute.
Finish! Pogacar beats Vingegaard and takes back the yellow!
200 meters to go – Pogacar attacks, Vingegaard tries to follow!
500 meters to go – There will be a sprint between the GC riders!
800 meters to go – Evenepoel is leading. The favorites are not giving each other much.
1 km to go – The last kilometer has started. Van der Poel already has to concede half a minute.
1.5 km to go – Pogacar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel are riding in the lead together.
1.7 km to go – Van der Poel is struggling at the back of the peloton. He can’t keep up.
2.1 km to go – We’re going up the Mûr-de-Bretagne again! The final has started!
3.4 km to go – The peloton, slightly thinned after the crash, continues. Van der Poel is in a good position.
6.1 km to go – A crash in the peloton! Among others, Almeida is involved and he is in the verge. It doesn’t look good for him. Buitrago is also involved in the crash.
7.2 km to go – The thinned peloton, consisting of 42 riders, is preparing for the final. They are riding hard. Wout van Aert is also moving to the front.
11 km to go – Jonas Vingegaard is at the front of the peloton, together with Tim Wellens and Simon Yates.
12 km to go – Costiou is caught, which means that the day’s breakaway is over!
12 km to go – How is Mathieu van der Poel doing? The yellow jersey wearer has moved up a bit in the peloton, while he seemed to be having a hard time.
13 km to go – There is only one leader left in the final phase, Costiou. His adventure seems to be short-lived…
14 km to go – Ewen Costiou of Arkéa – B&B Hotels is the first over the Côte de Mûr-de-Bretagne, followed by Tim Wellens.
16 km to go – Van der Poel is struggling in the peloton and has to drop back a bit.
16 km to go – Thomas has already been caught by the peloton. The final has really started now. The peloton is going up at a rapid pace.
17 km to go – What is the lead of the leaders? It is now 47 seconds.
18 km to go – Geraint Thomas, the oldest participant in the Tour, has to let go from the leading group.
19 km to go – The five leaders have started the first climb: Côte du village de Mûr-de-Bretagne. That is the warm-up for the final.
What awaits the riders?
– Côte du village de Mûr-de-Bretagne (Category 4, 1.6 km at 4.1 percent)- Mûr-de-Bretagne (Category 3, 2 km at 7 percent)- Mûr-de-Bretagne (Category 3, 2 km at 7 percent)
You can also see it that way… Tadej Pogacar back in the rainbow jersey instead of the yellow.
32 km to go – We are another 10 kilometers further, but the leaders are holding their own. The lead is now around a minute: 58 seconds.
42 km to go – The peloton accelerates and brings the deficit back to a minute. It seems that the attack on the leaders has been opened.
It was also remarkable to see that Van der Poel did not participate in the fight for the intermediate sprint today. The leader in the general classification did not take any points.
On Thursday, Van der Poel caused a stir by enthusiastically sprinting along.
57 km to go – Of the riders in the peloton, Jonathan Milan is the fastest. He beats Biniam Girmay in the fight for sixth place in the intermediate sprint. Milan takes ten points for the green jersey, Girmay one less.
57 km to go – Iván García Cortina of Movistar wins the intermediate sprint in Plédran! He trumps Marco Haller.
The five leaders are still 60 kilometers away from the finish. But as said: the sting is in the tail today. The intermediate sprint is coming up…
The peloton is riding through Saint-Brieuc, the hometown of Alexis Renard of Cofidis. Saint-Brieuc was in the past several times a finish place in the Tour.
66 km to go – It is now a bit quiet in the seventh stage. The lead of the leaders remains stable. Will anything happen before the final?
The riders just passed through Yffiniac, the birthplace of the French cycling legend Bernard Hinault. And there was a nice tribute to Hinault.
Meanwhile in the Giro for women…: Liane Lippert wins the sixth stage. The German rider of Movistar beat her Dutch fellow escapee Pauliena Rooijakkers after 145 kilometers between Bellaria-Igea Marina and Terre Roveresche.
74 km to go – The lead of the leaders is increasing again. The gap seemed to shrink briefly to less than a minute, but in the meantime the five already have a 1.35 lead again.
By the way, it is the last tour of one of the escapees, none other than Geraint Thomas. “This will indeed be my last year in the peloton. It hasn’t been all that bad, has it?”, said the 2018 Tour winner from Wales. “I never dared to dream that I could be a professional for nineteen years. There will be plenty of time to look back, but first there are still important races coming up.”
Guys, keep it a bit neat today. A ‘waste box’ completely in the atmosphere of the Tour…
87 km to go – Some riders are having a hard time today, including Edward Theuns, who has to let go from the peloton. He is an important servant of sprinter Jonathan Milan at Lidl-Trek.
89 km to go – Since the attack, the leading group has cycled 1.5 kilometers per hour faster than the peloton.
90 km to go – The peloton is accelerating a bit. The leading group now has a 1.13 lead. The lead has been slightly more than one and a half minutes.
That’s quite handy… Just a reminder for one of the riders from Team Jayco AlUla.
109 km to go – The lead of the leading group has increased to one minute and 45 seconds. It will be a while before the legs are really tested again. The first climb is less than 20 kilometers from the finish.
Van der Poel is not so worried in the peloton, which is now taking it a bit easier. He is well protected by his teammates at Alpecin-Deceuninck.
114 km to go – The first dropout of the day is a fact. The Italian Mattia Cattaneo of Soudal Quick-Step, the team of Remco Evenepoel, calls it quits.
Can former winner Geraint Thomas be heard again in the Tour? The now 39-year-old Welshman belongs to the leading group of five riders. Thomas won the Tour in 2018.
125 km to go – UAE Team Emirates and Alpecin-Deceuninck control at the head of the peloton. Nils Politt of Team Emirates is riding at the head, just like yesterday during a large part of the stage.
126 km to go – The five at the head now have a lead of one and a half minutes.
It was the fastest first hour of this edition of the Tour. The average speed of the peloton was 53.9 kilometers per hour.
139 km to go – We have a leading group! Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) is off, together with Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Marco Haller (Tudor), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar). The five already have more than a minute lead.
None of them poses a threat to the yellow jersey.
Day 7 of the Tour de France once again provides beautiful pictures.
Van der Poel got up fresh Mathieu van der Poel indicated just before the start that he was feeling quite good today. “I got up fresher already, I must say. It was a tough day after all. Most riders suffered. I was running empty at the end,” he said to Sporza about the relatively tough stage of Thursday. “I did tell the team to control anyway. But we only do it if the leading group is not too strong.”
152 km to go – Valentin Madouas is the next rider to try, but his escape attempt also ends in beauty.
The man of the first half hour, at the head: Wout van Aert. What are his plans for today? His flight with Schmid unfortunately did not stand for Visma-Lease a Bike.
The first thousand kilometers are over for the peloton. Only 2338 more to go to Paris…
168 km to go – There is no question of a quiet start today. They are immediately riding hard: 55 kilometers per hour. Several riders have already tried to get away, but without success.
Today the riders have to cover 2435 meters of altitude. That is significantly less than yesterday, when there were more than 3500 meters of altitude in the course.
177 km to go – The flight of Van Aert and Schmid does not last long. The duo is, perhaps a bit as expected, quickly caught by the peloton.
Jonas Vingegaard expects a difficult final. In the final phase there are two climbs of the third category and one of the fourth category.
186 km to go – Van Aert and Schmid have a 13 second lead. Can more riders report to the duo?
190 km to go – Van Aert is in the mood today. After being caught, he goes off again, this time with the Swiss Mauro Schmid.
The man who is back in the yellow: Mathieu van der Poel. He has a one second lead over Tadej Pogacar.
192 km to go – The ambitious leading group has created a gap of about 5 seconds.
Will it be such a day again? Ten riders, including Wout van Aert, go off immediately after the start. Whoever thought that the peloton would start up quietly after yesterday is wrong.
Départ réel! We are definitely on our way on the seventh day of the Tour de France.
It is also hot in Brittany. Today it will be between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. There is a fairly strong wind, but according to the organization it is more to the advantage than to the disadvantage of the riders.
Départ fictif! The riders have started their first kilometers through Saint-Malo. Just a moment until the official start.
There is again little to complain about the view and the weather today…
This is what today’s stage looks like, a ride of 196.6 kilometers with the finish on the Mûr-de-Bretagne. And the sting is in the tail, as it is called. After more than 139 kilometers is the intermediate sprint and the three climbs are all in the last 20 kilometers.
We are today in the coastal town of Saint-Malo, in northwestern France and the Brittany region. Ten more minutes until the riders start moving.