Stage 7

The road

At the start

The Super Planche, first mountain test

Tadej Pogačar has yellow, four seconds ahead of Neilson Powless and 31 ahead of Jonas Vingegaard, and he has taken time on everyone in a time trial, on the cobbles and on a hill without yet climbing anything above third category. Today he gets a mountain: seven kilometres of La Planche des Belles Filles, finishing on the gravel ramp above the tarmac. Primož Roglič, 2:27 down, rides for somebody else now.

How it was won

1. 175 km to go

   Pedersen helps himself in Gerardmer

   The break holds two minutes on a UAE-controlled bunch as Pedersen sweeps the intermediate sprint, Van Aert beating Jakobsen for the scraps behind.

2. 269 km to go

   Kämna splits the break

   On the first climb of the day Kämna accelerates with Schachmann glued to him and tears the escape in half. Ciccone goes out the back and Pedersen follows him, Trek's afternoon imploding in a few hundred metres.

3. 340 km to go

   Geschke doubles up

   The whittled-down break stretches its lead to three minutes and Geschke takes maximum points again, quietly building the mountains classification he will wear for a fortnight.

4. 45 km to go

   Kämna clear, the bunch shredding

   Kämna breezes past Geschke and goes solo five kilometres from the summit. Behind, McNulty and then Bennett rip the yellow jersey group down to twenty — Van Aert and Van der Poel long gone, and O'Connor, Pinot and Fuglsang losing contact for good.

5. 51 km to go

   Duel on the gravel ramp

   Kämna hits the gravel with 800 metres left as Majka empties himself for the last time. Pogačar bursts out of the saddle and instantly opens a gap; Vingegaard closes it. The Slovenian ramps it again until only three can follow, then the Dane counters with 200 metres to go and the yellow jersey is straining, a gap opening on gradients where thirty metres is an eternity.

6. 6At the line

   Pogačar finds one more kick

   Vingegaard fades in the last few metres and Pogačar surges past to take the Super Planche des Belles Filles, a second stage in two days and his overall lead stretched again. The pattern of this Tour looks settled — and it is completely wrong.

The result