Tour de France 2025 Stage 7

July 11, 2025 There is over 1,000 fewer climbing meters on the 197KM route today than yesterday but the climbs we do have are packed tight in the finish. The race from the coastal city of Saint-Malo in Brittany heads due South towards Trévérien before turning back up to the sea into Pléneuf-Val-André which is situated halfway through the stage. The second half of the day includes the intermediate sprint in Plédran with 58KM to go that sits on top of the town after 1.7KM of climbing at nearly 4%. The categorized climbs begin 20KM before the finish with the Côte du village du Mûr-de-Bretagne (1.7KM at 4%) which leads directly into the Mûr-de-Bretagne for the first of two ascents. The climb is 2KM at 6.5% and after the summit, there is a short downhill that leads into the climb to Saint-Mayeux (1.4KM at 5.5%). The riders take a 10KM loop back around to the Mûr-de-Bretagne for the second and final time with the finish line at the top. Saint-Malo was bathed in a perfect sky with the same color blue of the sea off on the horizon. Attacks went from the gun and Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike and Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla got away after just two or three kilometers. They got out to 10 seconds but the attacking continued and they were reeled in after almost 20KM off the front together. The speed was over 54KM/HR for the first 30KM making it almost impossible for anyone to get away. The attacking continued through Calorguen, the home of Bernard Hinault, and riders were visibly becoming more fatigued. With 142KM to go, a group of five riders managed to get away including Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost, Geraint Thomas of Ineos, Marco Haller of Tudor Pro Cycling, Ewen Costiou of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, and Iván García Cortina of Movistar. UAE-XRG started riding almost immediately and were joined by Alpecin-Deceuninck. The break's advantage was 1 minute 40 seconds as they reached Pléneuf-Val-André with 94KM to go. The speed up to this point was still over 50KM/HR with a tail and cross tail wind blowing them through the stage. Lidl-Trek and Intermarché-Wanty started to show themselves near the front of the bunch with 65KM to as they approached the intermediate sprint in Plédran. García Cortina took the maximum points from the break but the sprint was uncontested. Behind, the lead outs from Lidl-Trek and Intermarché-Wanty were too strong and both Jonathan Milan and Biniam Girmay were both dropped with 400M to go. Milan picked up the speed however and passed the lead out riders and took the sprint from the bunch just ahead of Girmay. Notably, Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck did not go for the points which indicated that he was all in for the stage win at the end of the day. The break was forced to increase their pace as the bunch were closing in to around 1 minute. With 42KM to go, Haller cramped and was forced to drop out of the break. A few kilometers later, the peloton changed complexion as teams got in color order and started to mob the front. Visma-Lease a Bike put their team on the front and drilled it downhill to the base of the Côte du village du Mûr-de-Bretagne with 20KM to go. In the break, Costiou led over the top but the group was down to three as Thomas was distanced on the way up. The leaders were quickly on to the Mûr-de-Bretagne and as they swung on to the climb, the number of spectators was almost unbelievable. The road raised straight up in front and it wasn't long before the pace of Visma-Lease a Bike spit riders out the back. Simon Yates went hard on the steepest section and within just 1KM, only Costiou was left at the front of the race. Costiou took the bell with just over 15KM to go and was 20 seconds ahead of the favorites group which was down to around 40 riders. Costiou was caught 3KM later and shortly after, the bunch took a right turn downhill to loop back around to the finish for one more time up the Mûr-de-Bretagne. On the fast downhill with 5.5KM to go, a touch of wheels took down around 10 riders halfway down the group. Jack Haig of Bahrain Victorious was worst off and was forced to abandon the race. UAE-XRG made a push and took the final right corner at 2KM to go to start the Mûr-de-Bretagne. Tim Wellens put in a massive turn which cut the group to just a handful of riders. By the time Wellens pulled off, only his teammate Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep, and Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike were left. Evenepoel took charge but didn't want to commit from so far which allowed Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels to come back along with Oscar Onley of Picnic-PostNL, Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike, Felix Gall of Decathlon AG2R, Jhonatan Narváez of UAE-XRG, and Axel Laurance of Ineos. Narváez took charge with 800M to go and stayed there until 200M to go when the road flattened out. Pogačar attacked from third wheel with a ferocious sprint and only Vingegaard was able to follow. Pogačar held his sprint to the line and took his second win of the Tour. Onley took third place and led the rest of the favorites group in with a 2 second gap as he crossed the line. Van der Poel paid for his efforts yesterday in the break and was dropped on the final climb. With the significant gap back to van der Poel and with Pogačar winning the stage, the Slovenian takes over the Yellow Jersey for his second stint of the race. Evenepoel sits second overall at 54 seconds with Vauquelin in third at 1 minute 11 seconds.