The Belgian Tim Merlier won the seventh stage of the Tour de France, Friday July 10 in Bordeaux, after a massive sprint, ahead of the Norwegian Soren Waerenskjold and the Eritrean Biniam Girmay.
The Soudal-Quick Step team’s racing car won by a wide margin, emerging in the final to derail the train set up by the Alpecin team for its sprinter Jasper Philipsen, only fifth.
At the end of a stage that was once again very hot but peaceful for the leaders, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar retained the yellow jersey with a lead of 2 minutes and 42 seconds over the Dane Jonas Vingegaard.
General ranking
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO/UAD) 24 h 56 : 17.
2. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN/TVL) at 2:42.
3. Isaac Del Toro (MEX/UAD) 3:27.
4. Remco Evenepoel (BEL/RBH) 3:30.
5. Juan Ayuso (ESP/LTK) 3:34.
6. Paul Seixas (FRA/DCT) 3:55.
7. Florian Lipowitz (GER/RBH) 4:00.
8. Lenny Martinez (FRA/TBV) 4:21.
9. Mattias Skjelmose (DEN/LTK) 4:57.
10. Mathias Vacek (CZE/LTK) 7:10.
Saturday’s stage
Sprinters will still be able to have fun this Saturday, over a 180.4 km course linking Périgueux and Bergerac. “The change of scenery is not always accompanied by an upheaval in the scenario. Diving in the Dordogne department, with a nod to the Lascaux cave and a trip to Sarlat for example, does not radically change the day’s elevation gain, limited to 1,150 m,” emphasizes Christian Prudhomme.
