Van Aert masters wind for 2nd Tour stage win

LAVAUR (France) • The Tour de France burst into life when a fast start and crosswinds blew the peloton apart in the seventh stage, leaving dark horse Tadej Pogacar with a lot of catching up to do ahead of the Pyrenees today.

Yesterday's 168km ride from Millau was dominated by Belgian Wout van Aert, who won his second Tour stage in three days, after a brutal start by Peter Sagan's Bora-Hansgrohe team and crosswinds had split the pack.

"I'm really proud of this one," said Team Jumbo-Visma's van Aert, who also won Stage 5 on Wednesday. "We rode flat out straight from the gun. Everyone could feel the crosswinds during the race.

"It was an incredible finish. I found a gap on the right hand side and I timed my sprint perfectly.

"I didn't expect this morning that I'd be competing for the victory. It's more of a surprise today. Nobody expected such a hard race!"

A sudden acceleration by champion Egan Bernal's Ineos Grenadiers team split the leading pack again with Slovenian Pogacar, one of the most fancied underdogs of the race, finding himself trapped behind and losing 1min 21sec on the line.

The UAE Emirates rider is now expected to be on the attack in the Pyrenees this weekend.

Briton Adam Yates, along with Primoz Roglic, Bernal and Pinot, was on the right side of the break and retained the overall leader's yellow jersey. He now leads Roglic by three seconds and France's Guillaume Martin by nine.

After a couple of extremely quiet days, the peloton was thrown into a tumbler when Bora-Hansgrohe's attack on the first climb left most of the sprinters behind.

That boosted Sagan's quest for a record-extending eighth green jersey for the points classification.

Green jersey holder Sam Bennett, as well as Australian Cadel Ewan, were far behind and could not contest the intermediate sprint, where Sagan collected 17 points after being beaten by only Matteo Trentin.

Triple world champion Sagan again lost out in the final sprint won by Milan-Sanremo champion van Aert, but the Slovak picked up an extra four points to leapfrog Irishman Bennett to the top of the points classification.

Today's eighth stage is a 141km mountain trek in the Pyrenees, featuring the ascents of the Col de Mente, the Port de Bales and the Col de Peyresourde.

While the downhill finish might lead the big guns to hold their fire again, any attempt by Pogacar to regain some time could trigger some movement.

REUTERS