Tadej Pogacar succeeds in the second stage victory at the Tour de France on the Mûr-de-Brittany. The Slovenian prevailed in front of Jonas Vingegaard in the upper sprint.
Pogacar takes over the yellow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel again. This continues the “jersey exchange” of the two. The Dutchman took over the Maillot Jaune from Pogacar the day before and had gone into the stage with a second lead in the classification.
Remco Evenepoel, Pogacar and Vingegaard had started the final climb at the top of a small group. Pogacar only attacked in the last few meters, only Vingegaard could stay on the back wheel of the defending champion. Oscar Onley finished third (+2 seconds).
Sportschau Tourfunk, 07/11/2025 6:36 pm
Lipowitz moves up to eighth place
Van der Poel lost contact with the top at the final climb on the first meters and finished 22nd (+1: 20 minutes). Florian Lipowitz was positioned too far back before the start of the increase (just like his captain Primoz Roglic) and lost the connection – the 24 -year -old was able to keep the gap within the last two kilometers and crossed the finish line as 14.
“In the end we were a little too far back”Lipowitz explained in an interview with the sports show. “I did my best to the goal. I think we can be completely satisfied.” In the overall ranking, Lipowitz advanced to eighth place despite the loss of time. Roglic is ninth now. Even Evenepoel also made a place well and was second 54 seconds.
Fall brakes Almeida out
Six kilometers before the finish, there was a violent fall in the main field on Breiter Straße at high speed, around a dozen professionals went down. Pogacar’s most important helper Joao Almeida was also affected and was missing in the final. The Portuguese reached the destination with bleeding wounds and 12 minutes behind.
In the interview with the stage winner, Pogacar’s thoughts were also at his teammate: “I am totally happy about today’s victory. We did an almost perfect job. Unfortunately Joao fell and I hope he is fine. If he is fine, it is a perfect day. If he is not doing well, I just hope that he is just doing well.”
The 7th stage over 197 kilometers was made for a showdown by the classification driver with the punches. The goal was due to the Mûr-de-Brittany, a two-kilometer stitch with up to 12 percent climb and 140 meters of altitude. Like 2021, we went up to the “Wall of Brittany” twice, at that time Mathieu van der Poel won ahead of Pogacar.
And this time Pogacar wanted to fight for victory again, he made it clear before the start. Nils Politt, for whom a lot of speed was waiting for his captain, said: “Today very clearly, we want to win the stage and will do everything we can.”
Almost 54 cuts after the first hour
At the start in Saint-Malo on the Breton north coast, the best weather conditions ruled. At 26 degrees and 16 km/h wind, the first attacks followed. But only after more than 50 kilometers had an outlier group formed with which everyone was satisfied in the field. In the five-member top group was also Geraint Thomas, the tour winner from 2018. His colleagues: Marco Haller, Alex Baudine, Ewen Costiou and Iván García Cortina.
The consequence of the attacks was an enormously high average stamp at 53.9 km/h in the first hour of race. So far, the professionals had not started the race so quickly on this tour. The pace remained even afterwards, half of the racing distance covered the professionals with a 50s cut. The outliers were held on the short leash, at the top of the main field, Politt and Silvan Dillier made pace for Van der Poel in the yellow jersey. The outliers had only 1:42 minutes ahead 100 kilometers before the finish – and the field did not want to give them more than around 100 seconds.
Milan in front of Girmay at the intermediate sprint
In the sprint rating 57 kilometers before the finish, only García really took up their best and got 20 points. Jonathan Milan won the sprint of the main field in front of Biniam Girmay. The Italian collected another ten points. In contrast to the previous day, van der Poel did not invest any force. Understandable – he had completely output himself as one of the outliers on the 6th stage.
It was still polite 35 kilometers before the finish line that did the pace work in the peloton. The main field was now around a minute. And the outliers were only fourth, Haller had cramps and had to let the others go. At the first passage over the “Wall”, Simon Yates made the pace for Visma, Lipowitz also drove at the forefront, Van der Poel had problems for the first time.
Costiou was still the last outlier, he got two mountain points on the Mûr. But 12.3 kilometers before the finish, the field also provided the French- and the Visma and UAE team led the group with the tour favorites towards the final climb.
Flat stage on Saturday
On Saturday there is a flat stage on the program, in which the Sprinter could make the victory among themselves. The 8th stage of over 171 kilometers from Saint-Méen-Le-Grand to Laval Espace Mayenne goes. The home stretch is slightly rising.