Last year’s winner on the Champs-Elysées Dylan Groenewegen of LottoNL-Jumbo took his second Tour de France stage victory as he outsprinted Fernando Gaviria and Peter Sagan in Chartres. Greg Van Avermaet retained the yellow jersey and extended his lead by three seconds at the bonus point.
170 riders started stage 7 in Fougères at 12.21. Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) was first to try and go from the gun but he gave up as he realized that nobody was keen to accompany him. His team-mate Thomas Degand was next to go out of the bunch at km 3 but again, he received no help. The peloton was on a slow motion and Degand waited for being swallowed at km 17. After the regrouping, the peloton strung out and ten riders rode away: Oliver Naesen and Tony Gallopin (AG2R-La Mondiale), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Arthur Vichot (Groupama-FDJ), Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Yves Lampaert (Quick Step), Michael Gogl (Trek-Segafredo), Julien Vermote (Dimension Data), Edward Theuns (Sunweb) and Simon Gerrans (BMC). The LottoNL-Jumbo team wasn’t happy with this breakaway. They rode strongly behind and put an end to their initiative at km 25, after which the whole peloton went back to a slow motion.
Offredo: 108km solo
Offredo went clear at km 35. He got a maximum advantage of 9’13’’ for himself but there were still 170km to cover! Sprinters’ teams eventually got organized with Quick Step, Lotto-Soudal, LottoNL-Jumbo and Groupama-FDJ swapping turns at the head of the peloton. With 100km to go, AG2R-La Mondiale and Trek-Segafredo combined forces to take advantage from an open space and a bit of wind. They created echelons and the peloton was split in three parts for a little while but at the exception of stage 6 winner Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), all the favourites were attentive. The action put an end to Offredo’s breakaway after 108km covered by himself. 84km before the end, Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo-Samsic) rode away solo. After winning the intermediate sprint for the second day running, the Breton rider was reeled in with 38km to go as the sprinters’ teams upped the tempo at the head of the peloton.
Three more seconds lead for Van Avermaet
Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) extended his lead in the overall ranking as he took 3 seconds at the bonus with 31km to go. All sprinters teams got organized in the finale. Julian Alaphilippe launched the lead out for Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step) but Dylan Groenewegen found the right timing to justify the excellent work made by his LottoNL-Jumbo team earlier in the race. The Dutchman became the third different sprinter to win in the first third of the 105th Tour de France after Gaviria and Sagan.
