Tadej Pogacar pounces to retake Tour de France lead after Stage 7
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UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar en route to winning Stage 7 of the Tour de France on July 11.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MUR DE BRETAGNE, France – Tadej Pogacar won Stage 7 of the Tour de France on July 11 to retake the overall lead with a trademark swoop up the short, steep slope of the Mur de Bretagne.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard was second, right on Pogacar’s wheel at the line with Briton Oscar Onley of Team Picnic-PostNL third after a late nine-rider pile-up marred the finale.
“It was perfect but unfortunate that Joao crashed. If he is OK, it is a perfect day, if he is not, then this victory is for him. Right now, I just wish he is OK,” said Pogacar, in reference to teammate Joao Almeida.
“Me and Mathieu (van der Poel) both know this finish very well with nice memories. I guess we both wanted to win on this iconic climb but maybe he left too much on the road yesterday, so we couldn’t have this rematch, but for me the day went as planned so it’s amazing.”
Pogacar, the defending champion from UAE Team Emirates, gained four seconds on Vingegaard with 10 bonus seconds to the Dane’s six.
In the overall standings, Remco Evenepoel is second overall, 54 seconds off first as he finished sixth on the day, two seconds adrift.
French starlet Kevin Vauquelin continues his bright run in third at 1min 11sec, while two-time champion Vingegaard is fourth at 1min 17sec.
Overnight leader van der Poel rounded out the top five at 1min 29sec after wilting on the final climb, the scene of his 2021 win and his first yellow jersey.
“I was quite sure I would lose the jersey today so I tried to enjoy it as much as possible,” said the 30-year-old Dutchman.
“Coming back here to Mur-de-Bretagne is quite special wearing the yellow jersey after four years.”
The day’s action revolved around two ascents of the Mur de Bretagne, a 2km climb at an average of 6 per cent, that has been written into Tour de France folklore.
With the Tour returning to Brittany after a four-year gap, huge festive crowds packed the villages and pretty country lanes as the temperature hit 30 deg C.
The 179 remaining riders left Saint Malo on the north-west coast passing the magnificent Sillon beach with its granite seawall and chic seafront buildings.
Fewer of them will be at the start line for the mostly flat 171.4km run from Saint-Meen-le-Grand to Laval on July 12, with doubts over Pogacar’s key teammate Almeida and the Colombian Santiago Buitrago of Team Bahrain Victorious. AFP, REUTERS