The longest day

Stage 7 is the longest of the 106th Tour de France with 230km to cover from Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône. As there’s no stage without any categorized climb this year, KOM points will be up for grabs at col de Ferrière (cat. 4, km 37.5), côte de Chassagne-Saint-Denis (cat. 3, km 95.5) and côte de Nans-Sous-Sainte-Anne (cat. 4, km 119.5) but Tim Wellens’ polka dot jersey is not under threat and his Lotto-Soudal team will have another goal with gearing up for a bunch sprint finish. The day after his 25th birthday, Caleb Ewan is looking for his first stage victory at the Tour on his first participation, just like Dylan Teuns yesterday. Sonny Colbrelli is surely inspired by his team-mate from Bahrain-Merida but Dylan Groenewegen and Alexander Kristoff are the other top sprinters who are yet to win this year. It’s the Tour of the new faces. Giulio Ciccone is the third rider in yellow for the first time after Mike Teunissen and Julian Alaphilippe.