Tadej Pogacar outsprinted rival Jonas Vingegaard and an elite group of general classification contenders to win stage seven of the Tour de France in Mur-de-Bretagne and reclaim the yellow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel.
Pogacar opened up his sprint 200 metres from the line with Vingegaard the only man from a select group able to follow his wheel, while the 22-year-old Scot Oscar Onley continued his excellent Tour so far by beating Felix Gall into third place on the day.
It was here that Van der Poel beat Pogacar to take an emotional first career Tour stage win and with it the yellow jersey four years ago, honouring his late grandfather Raymond Poulidor, and with Van der Poel holding just a one-second advantage over Pogacar coming into today there was potential for a thrilling rematch.
But as they hit the 15 per cent gradients at the start of this 2km climb for the second time, Van der Poel paid the price for Thursday's breakaway effort by quickly losing the wheels as he gave up one minute and 20 seconds, dropping to fifth overall as he turns his attentions elsewhere.
Remco Evenepoel had been in the front group and led both Pogacar and Vingegaard under the flamme rouge, but he fell back to sixth at the line, allowing Pogacar to extend his lead to 54 seconds over the Belgian at the top of the general classification. Vingegaard sits fourth, one minute and 17 seconds back.
Pogacar celebrated a 101st professional win but was understandably concerned about his teammate Joao Almeida, who fell in a late crash that also brought down Thursday's winner Ben Healy and Jack Haig, among others. The latter was forced to abandon the race, while Almeida finished 10 minutes down.
“I'm super-happy with the win today,” Pogacar said. “We did it almost perfectly. I understand Joao crashed, I hope he's OK – if he's OK then it's a perfect day and if not then this victory is for him.
“Me and Mathieu both know this finish very well, with nice memories. I guess we both wanted to win on this iconic climb but maybe he left too much on the road yesterday so we couldn't have this rematch, but for me the day went as planned so it's amazing.”
Geraint Thomas, the oldest man in the field riding his final Tour at 39, had been part of a five-man breakaway to try their luck on the 197km stage from Saint-Malo, but they were never given more than around 90 seconds as the main contenders eyed the potential to gain time on the steep finale.
The peloton again set a ferocious pace, with Pogacar's average speed 47.5kmph over rolling roads in northern France.
It proved too much for Van der Poel, who can reflect on a first week that has brought a stage win and four days in yellow, before switching his attention to the fight for the green jersey.
“I was quite sure I would lose the jersey today so I tried to enjoy it as much as possible and I did,” he said. “To come back to Mur-de-Bretagne was quite special wearing the yellow jersey after four years, I'm happy.”
As he did on stage four into Rouen, the young Onley, riding only his second Tour, hung with the main protagonists to the line and moved up to seventh in the general classification, two minutes and 49 seconds back.
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