Pogacar Wins Stage Seven To Retake Tour Lead As Gb's Onley Comes Third

Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar regained nan title lead arsenic he won shape 7 of nan Tour de France.

Mathieu van der Poel reclaimed nan yellowish jersey from Pogacar by 1 2nd aft a gruelling time for nan Dutch rider on Thursday.

Stage 7 had nan aforesaid decorativeness arsenic successful 2021, erstwhile Van der Poel claimed his first shape triumph connected nan iconic Mur-de-Bretagne climb.

But he was incapable to situation Pogacar connected Friday arsenic nan three-time victor edged retired Jonas Vingegaard successful a sprint for nan line, pinch British rider Oscar Onley completing nan podium.

The 22-year-old Scot is making his Tour debut for Picnic PostNL and climbed up to seventh connected nan wide classification standings, pinch Van der Poel slipping to fifth.

"Me and Mathieu some cognize this decorativeness very well," said Pogacar.

"We some wanted to triumph connected this iconic climb but I deliberation possibly yesterday he near excessively overmuch connected nan roadworthy truthful we couldn't person a rematch."

Geraint Thomas rolled backmost nan years arsenic nan 2018 title victor spent astir of nan time successful a five-man breakaway but nan Welshman was caught by nan peloton connected nan first of 3 categorised climbs successful nan last 18km.

The 39-year-old is riding successful nan Tour for nan 14th and last clip earlier retiring and helped found a spread astir 55km into nan 197km way from Saint-Malo to Mur-de-Bretagne.

That lead ne'er reached much than 1 infinitesimal 40 seconds, truthful a repetition of Ben Healy's breakaway triumph connected shape six looked improbable moreover earlier nan hilly finale.

Ewen Costiou was nan past breakaway rider to beryllium caught, conscionable aft nan 2nd climb, and arsenic nan wide classification contenders prepared for nan last ascent, a nine-man clang brought down Pogacar's UAE Emirates-XRG team-mate Joao Almeida.

The Slovenian's different team-mates led him up to nan decorativeness while Almeida, who was seventh successful nan wide standings, came successful 10 minutes aft Pogacar and Jack Haig was forced to abandon.

Stage 8 is simply a level 171.4km route from Saint-Meen-le-Grand to Laval Espace Mayenne,