Tour de France stage 7 Live – Evenepoel the favourite as GC battle resumes in time trial

Yesterday’s winner Dylan Groenewegen is next off. That victorious ride means he’s now won in five different Tours de France.

Back with Cavendish, who’s on the route’s climb. It’s quite a steep one, with the gradient hovering around 7 – 8%, but not especially long. 

Now comes Søren Wærenskjold, wearing the Norwegian national champions jersey. He won a time trial at the Belgium Tour recently, so could set an early benchmark.

Now Lenny Martinez starts for Groupama FDJ. It really is a surprise to see him this far down on GC. He did a very good ride at the Tour de Suisse, where he placed sixth overall, so could do a good ride if he’s ridden himself into some form these past few days. 

Yevgeniy Fedorov is the latest rider to roll down the start ramp. That means five of the seven riders currently out on the road are from Astana – they’re all rooted at the bottom of the GC, having held back to help and support Cavendish during his difficult opening days.

Fabio Jakobsen has just set off. He’s suffered alongside the Manxman in the opening days of the Tour, albeit to less attention, but has looked better in the sprints, finishing seventh and fifth on Monday and Wednesday respectively.

And we’re off! Cav rolls down the start ramp to get this time trial started.

Cavendish is at the start ramp now. He’s got a big smile on his face – this will be a nice, leisurely day for him.

For other riders, today will be a stage of trepidation. There are some GC riders who will fear this stage more than any other. Carlos Rodríguez, for instence, last year lost time to all four of the riders who ultimatley finished above him on GC, and is vulnerable to more losses today. 

With so many quality time trialists among the GC candidates, it’s going to be tough for specialists against the clock to be in the mix for a stage win, but they will give it a go. Stefan Küng stands out as a man who could challenge them. He was denied a time trial stage win in 2021 only by Tadej Pogačar, and missed out on World gold medal by a mere two seconds to Tobias Foss the year after. 

Mark Cavendish will be the first off the start rap in just over twenty minutes. The Manxman is last place…