Pogacar also records a beautiful stage win on La Planche des Belles Filles | cycling

On Friday, the peloton faced the first real mountain during this edition of the Tour. With only seven kilometers it was not yet one of mythical proportions, but in the last hundreds of meters the gradient at times exceeded twenty. Lennard Kämna started that last tough climb together with Dylan Teuns and Simon Geschke, but took off alone with five kilometers to go. He seemed to be heading for victory, but was caught up just before the finish by an unleashed Pogacar.

leading group

It took a long time before a leading group had formed in stage 7, but after about fifty kilometers the group of adventurers was finally free. Max Schachmann and Lennard Kämna, Kasper Asgreen, Imanol Erviti, Simon Geschke, Luke Durbridge, Giulio Ciccone, Mads Pedersen, Dylan Teuns, Cyril Barthe got more than two minutes from the peloton.

But it was clear that Pogacar had his sights set on the stage win and absolutely did not want to lose the leader’s jersey he had won the day before. The lead of the leaders did not increase further due to the efforts of the Slovenian team.

Kämna, Schachmann, Geschke, Teuns and Durbridge had had enough and left. The five of them managed to increase the lead to more than three minutes. Barthe and Erviti later joined the five leaders.

At the foot of the treacherous climb, only Teuns, Kämna, and Geschke were left of the front runners. They started with 80 seconds ahead of La Planche des Belles Filles. The big question was, would that be enough to keep the chasing pack behind? So no, Pogacar and Vingegaard just passed him.

Saturday

Saturday is the 186 kilometer ride from Dole to Laussane on the program.