Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) scorched to the stage victory and returned to the Tour de France overall lead on the summit of Mùr de Bretagne, clinching his second stage win in four days ahead of arch-rival Jonas Vingegard (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Given a flawless lead-out by teammate Jhonatan Narváez at the head of a group of eight stage leaders, Pogačar stomped on the pedals 150 metres from the line to clinch the 101st win of his career.
After a nasty crash with four kilometres to go saw top names like João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) fall heavily, UAE and Visma-Lease a Bike led the lead group of 20 riders onto the second ascent of the short but painfully steep Mûr-de-Bretagne.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) placed down a driving acceleration in the last kilometre, causing race leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to falter and fall back. Pogačar, though was poised to pounce, with Vingegaard shadowing him closely but unable to come past at the finish.
"I'm super happy with the win today, we did it almost perfect. Unfortunately João crashed, I hope he's OK, if he is OK, it's a perfect day, if he's not OK, then this victory is for him.
"I think me and Mathieu [van der Poel] both know this place very well, we have nice memories of it and we both wanted the same, to win on this iconic climb. But maybe he left out too much on the road yesterday [Thursday] so we couldn't have a re-match.
"But for me, the day went like we planned and the win is amazing."
How it unfolded
On the rolling rural roads of central Brittany, Visma-Lease a Bike were once again very aggressive from the gun, with Victor Campenaerts and Wout van Aert, the latter also an early breakaway on stage 6, both early protagonists. Van Aert finally got clear with Swiss National Road Race and Time Trial Champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) in what looked like the most promising of the early moves. The first hour was raced at a searing average speed of 53.9 kph, and both the Belgian super-talent's challenge and subsequent digs spearheaded by Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) all proved to be equally unsuccessful.
Finally the elastic snapped at 140 kilometres from the line and five riders went clear: 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), racing his last ever three-week stage race, Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Marco Haller (Tudor), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar).
A counter-attack, spearheaded by Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) shortly afterwards, failed to work out and UAE's Nils Politt and Marc Soler duly began operating a holding pattern on the front of the bunch.
By the time the stage reached the birthplace of Bernard Hinault in Yffiniac, the gap remained stable at around 1:40 as the quintet ahead zoomed past giant effigies of the Breton giant of the sport. More and more, it seemed clear that any decisive action would be reduced to the three classified climbs of the stage, all situated in the last 20 kilometres.
The breakaway tapped through the intermediate sprint of the day at the top of a slight climb, with García Cortina the sole rider to show interest in the move. Meanwhile, in the bunch US National Champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), aiming to limit potential inroads made by rivals of teammate Jonathan Milan in the points competition, powered ahead to claim sixth place behind the break of five.
As so often happens in the Tour, the rise in speed at the sprint meant it doubled as the unofficial starting point for the stage finale, and the collaboration between the quintet ahead became notably more fluid and intense. It proved a two-edged weapon for Marco Haller, who sat up, clutching his thigh in pain, most likely with cramps. His difficulties also reduced the number of stage leaders to four and with less than a minute's margin, it now looked very much as if the winner was going to come from the main bunch.
Little by little, after a fraught start and very dull middle section, stage 7 began taking a more definitive shape. Various sprinters like Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Milan and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), saved their energy for the two flat days on the weekend by sitting up while UAE Team Emirates-XRG notably increased their speed. Politt, having worked for the better part of two hours on the front, gave way to his teammate Soler, with Pavel Sivakov then taking over.
On the first ascent of two of the Mûr-de-Bretagne, though, Costiou went clear alone and Thomas was swept up one kilometre from the top. Costiou though was still ahead as he flashed across the finish line for the first time ahead of a front group of 25 or 30 riders, including all the main GC favourites, albeit with a dwindling advantage of just over 20 seconds.
The narrative changed abruptly, though, as Van Aert set off in pursuit, losing his glasses on a corner of the sweeping descent but nonetheless ably leading Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) and a strung-out bunch off the Mûr-de-Bretagne at very high speed. 12 kilometres from the finish, Costiou was caught, unable to take what would have been a dream win for local team Arkéa, but very much a key protagonist on home soil nonetheless, which always counts for something.
The top GC teams were now an ever-increasing presence at the front of the mini-lead peloton, Visma and UAE jostling for position on the long, rolling run-in to the second, definitive ascent of the Mûr. Vingegaard was in third position a lot of time, Pogačar running around tenth, and Van der Poel still present, too, after struggling on the first time over the climb but there were plenty of other potential candidates for the stage.
Suddenly, though, a crash at the back four kilometres from the line wreaked havoc in the rear end of the group and radically reduced its number, with Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG); Jack Haig and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) all hitting the deck hard.
The front end of the mini-pack thundered on as Visma, still with Van Aert, were suddenly overtaken by a flying Tim Wellens with Pogačar glued to his back wheel. As the road steepened to its maximum of 15%, Pogačar tried to go from a distance, but Evenepoel and Vingegaard were quick to follow. As a result, for a few tantalizing seconds, the top three finishers of the 2024 Tour briefly emerged at the head of the field, but the chances of a three-way GC sprint fizzled out when Pogačar visibly slowed and a group of half a dozen chasers regained contact.
Amongst their number, Narváez was to prove crucial to Pogačar's last efforts, particularly as Almeida, the rider Pogačar usually relies on for uphill lead-outs, had crashed badly just before.
"Normally João should be there, but then Johnny came through in the last kilometre and he did a super job," Pogačar recounted later, "keeping things under control until I came through."
When Pogačar did accelerate around 200 metres from the line, try as he might he was unable to shake off Vingegaard, for all the World Champion's dramatic hike in speed allowed the lead GC duo to gain a couple of seconds on their closest pursuers.
Hitting speeds of 55kph at the top of the climb a 19th Tour de France stage victory beckoned for Pogačar as well as the yellow and green jerseys. And while Almeida's injuries are an important blow, Pogačar's grip on the 2025 Tour remains as firm as ever one week after the start in Lille.
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