Full British triumph with Cavendish and Froome

186 riders started stage 7 in Livarot. Two non-starters: yellow jersey holder Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) and Greg Henderson (Lotto-Soudal). There was no yellow jersey in the peloton to ride from Normandy to Brittany via the Mayenne province in a rural zone exposed to the sun. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) had a crash in the neutral zone. Kristjian Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis), Anthony Delaplace and Brice Feillu (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) rode away from the bunch after 1.5km of racing. Polka dot jersey holder Teklehaimanot claimed one more point at the top of the only categorized climb of the day, the côte de Canapville at km 12.5.

Teklehaimanot a hero again

The five leading riders reached a maximum advantage of 3.50 at km 27. Belgian teams Lotto-Soudal and Etixx-Quick Step combined forces at the head of the bunch to keep a steady time gap below three minutes. In the fight for the green jersey, John Degenkolb outsprinted Peter Sagan, André Greipel and Mark Cavendish at the intermediate sprint in Argentan (km 65.5). With 32km to go, Maté attacked at the front and Teklehaimanot opted for being reined in by the peloton as the breakaway was going nowhere with an advantage of 50 seconds with 50km to go and 30 seconds with 30km to go.

Cavendish the fastest

Durasek and Delaplace were caught with 15km to go. Maté and Feillu kept going for four kilometers more and the race was bunched up for the last 10km of racing. Giant-Alpecin, FDJ and Katusha successively moved to the front of the bunch for John Degenkolb, Arnaud Démare and Alexander Kristoff respectively but top guns André Greipel, Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan waited for the right moment to surge. Cavendish found his way back to glory while Froome moved back into the overall lead.