Mathieu van der Poel was only out of the yellow jersey for a day before he retook the maillot juane from Tadej Pogačar by a single second after a successful breakaway in Thursday’s seventh stage of the 112th Tour de France. The most successful in that breakaway was Irish raider Ben Healy, who earned the day’s flowers and rose to eighth on GC. Michael Woods was top Canadian at 66th.
At the last moment Tadej Pogačar looked like he might try to keep the race lead, but came up just a little short.
The Course
Thursday swung back to the several-small climbs, reduced-bunch sprint formula. Eleven KOM points would likely draw a lively breakaway.
Frenetic action characterized the first third of the day. Fifty-six kilometers and one climb down and the breakaway of the day still hadn’t stuck, although many had tried. By the second climb of Côte de la Rançonnière, Jonathan Milan and most of the sprinters were shelled out the back. Michael Woods took a point at the top behind Tim Wellens, who provisionally took over the polka dot jersey from teammate Pogačar.
On the 95 km between Climbs 2 and 3, a quintet containing Healy and van der Poel got away, receiving reinforcements from the likes of Simon Yates and Eddie Dunbar. The twitchy energy in the peloton meant that chaps kept trying to join the octet. Finally, the action subsided. Van der Poel, +1:28 of Pogačar overnight, returned to the top of the GC.
As the escape pried out a two minute lead, the Tudor and Movistar cars had a somewhat pointed discussion, possibly about caravan etiquette.
Evenepoel’s Soudal-QuickStep and Pogačar’s UAE-Emirates pulled the field along. Cat 3’s Côte de Mortain, Côte de Juvigny-le-Tertre and Côte de Saint-Michel de-Montjoie were the sites of KOM contests between Dunbar, Healy and Michael Storer. Giro d’Italia stage winner Healy then lit out on his own.
Healy rode with sharp intent, racking up the KOM points while pulling out a 2:00 lead on the two breakmates who became his closest chasers. Before the final climb of the day, the peloton dropped 7:00 back.
Van der Poel came eighth, almost 4:00 behind the Irishman.
Friday offers up two ascents of the…
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