2018 Tour de France Stage 7 Results & Recap
Stage 7 of the 2018 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Groenewegen finds his form
By Clara Beard
Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) crossed the line in Chartes with a finger to his lips, as if to “silence his critics” who suggested his form wasn’t where it should be at this year’s Tour de France. The Dutch rider handily beat out Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step Floors) by a bike length completing the hard work done by his Lotto NL Jumbo team earlier in the stage.
Peter Sagan finished third and will start stage 8 in the green jersey, 31 points ahead of his closest rival, Gaviria
“It has been quite a messy sprint today,” Sagan said. “I’m happy nobody crashed, and overall I feel this has been a positive day. The hardest part has been the sprint, of course. I was lucky I was on Fernando’s wheel, because that helped me reaching the finish line in third position. I didn’t have the legs to be first or second, and third is better than fourth. It was a boring stage, but it was okay to have a stage without stress, under the sun, without wind. I had time to spoke with everybody in the peloton.”
It was quite a relaxed day for the yellow jersey Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team), who was allowed to take the intermediate time bonus in the latter part of the stage.
“I gave a try to the bonus point, just to be safe on GC,” he said. “It was an easy stage, but I still had to be focused because of the wind. These are days when you can’t stop focusing. I’m happy to keep the jersey. I hope to remain in yellow after Roubaix but firstly my goal is to start stage 9 to Roubaix in the lead, it would already be something. Barring a puncture or a crash, I will keep it. But the stage to Roubaix will be hectic. It’s the most important stage of the first part of the Tour. Our priority will be to keep Richie Porte and myself safe.”
At 231 kilometres, the longest day of the Tour de France seemed to also be the easiest for most of the riders in the peloton. Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) was the first to attack, but without any rider eager to accompany him, he slid back into the safety of the peloton. His teammate, Thomas Degand gave it a go as well, but decided against riding a 220 kilometre time trial and waited for the bunch as well.
After a group ride for a few more kilometres, Offredo went again at kilometre 35 and this time bit the bullet and built up an advantage of more than nine minutes. Things stayed stagnant until 100 km to go, when the crosswinds picked up enough for AG2R and Trek Segafredo to drive the pace for some echelon action. The move brought back to Offredo and the next to attack was Laurent Pichon.
Pichon hung out in front into 35 kilometres to go, then it was a fight among the sprinters teams to position for the finish.
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