World champion Tadej Pogacar’s barnstorming win

Tadej Pogacar regained the yellow jersey at the Tour de France with a commanding Stage 7 win at Mur-de-Bretagne, beating Jonas Vingegaard in a seven-man sprint. The Slovenian now leads overall, while Joao Almeida's crash marred an otherwise stellar day.

HYDERABAD: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) swooped back into the yellow jersey with a second stage win in this year’s Tour de France after beating arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the iconic finish climb at Mur-de-Bretagne in Stage 7. Pogacar had more punch than any of his opponents in a tense seven-up sprint as Britain’s Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) impressed with a solid third place ahead of Austria’s Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and American Matteo Jorgenson (Visma).

The double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) was the only of the remaining general classification favourites who could match Pogacar and Vingegaard on the tough double-digit ramp of the final climb in Brittany. But as the gradient eased towards the home straight, and more riders were able to chase back on, the Belgian could only take sixth place in the sprint finish.

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With the overnight race leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – the last rider to win at Mur-de-Bretagne in 2021 – finishing over a minute back, Pogacar soared back into the race lead. The Slovenian now holds a 54-second advantage over Stage 5 winner Evenepoel in the standings, with Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) third at 1:11.

Vingegaard – who showed much promise in matching Pogacar’s relentless uphill accelerations – is fourth at 1:17, while Dutchman Van der Poel slipped to fifth after clearly suffering off the back of his starring role in Thursday’s breakaway.

Beyond the indefatigable world champion, Onley was the big winner of the day, the young Scottish climber rising four places to seventh in the general classification (GC) at the expense of Pogacar’s UAE team-mate Joao Almeida, who suffered a terrible crash on the fast descent leading up to the finale.

Portuguese climber Almeida’s back wheel appeared to explode, causing him and around a dozen riders to hit the deck at high speed near the back of the yellow jersey group with around six kilometres remaining of the 197km stage through Brittany.

Stage 6 winner Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was also involved in the crash, the Irishman quickly returning to the saddle but dropping out of the top 10. Australia’s Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) was forced to withdraw while his Colombian team-mate Santiago Buitrago, like Almeida, plummeted down the standings after conceding over 13 minutes.

An 18th career win on the Tour de France also saw Pogacar move back into the lead in the green jersey standings, while his Belgian team-mate Tim Wellens retained the polka dot jersey ahead of back-to-back stages that should suit the sprinters over the weekend.

“I’m super happy with the win,” 28-year-old Pogacar said. “Today, we did almost perfectly. It was unfortunate that João [Almeida] crashed, and I hope he’s okay. If he’s okay, then it’s a perfect day, but if he’s not okay, then this victory is for him. Right now, I just wish he’s okay,” he said.