2026 Tour de France Stage 7 Results & Recap
Stage 7 of the 2026 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
Bordeaux has a long tradition of favouring sprinters, often Belgian ones, and Tim Merlier (SOQ) extended up when he won a fiercely-contested bunch finish into Bordeaux. Merler finished a good bike-length clear of Søren Wærenskjold (UXM), with Biniam Girmay (NSN) in third, Max Kanter (XAT) fourth and Jasper Philipsen (APT) in fifth.
Coming into the final kilometre, Philipsen's Alpecin team were in the driving seat. Led out by Mathieu van der Poel (APT), Philipsen was perfectly placed to repeat his success in Bordeaux in 2023. But he bumped Fernando Gaviria (CJR) sprinting along the right-hand barrier, which checked his momentum.
As Philipsen faltered, Merlier made his dash for the line. Coming from a few places back in the pack, he never looked like being caught as he secured his fourth Tour stage win and continued his record of winning at least one stage in every Tour he's started.
As was the case on the last two stages, the break of the day went right at the start. Baptiste Veistroffer (LOI) was a predictable presence and he was joined by former Czech time trial champion Jakub Otruba (CJR).
The peloton has quickly realised that Veistroffer is a powerful rouleur who can't be allowed too much freedom. The bunch soon checked the break's advantage at 1'40", and a game of cat and mouse ensued. The break would ease up, causing the bunch to do the same so the pair remained ahead of the race, thus preventing further attacks. Veistroffer and Otruba would then accelerate, triggering the same response in the peloton.
On one occasion, the gap got small enough to encourage Uno-X to launch their rouleur supreme Jonas Abrahamsen (UXM), but he was quicky chased down before he could join up with the leaders and cause some real damage.
Following the bunch's catch of the break with 20km remaining, the sprinters' teams locked down the race, although Abrahamsen did attempt another solo sortie that was quickly neutralized. As is genearlly the case in Bordeaux, the sprinters weren't to be denied.
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