Tadej Pogacar wins stage 7 of the 2025 Tour de France, with Jonas Vingegaard in second and Onlyey in third. The win is the Slovenian’s second in the 2025 race, and puts him back into the maillot jaune for Saturday.
The peloton faced another challenging stage with the famous summit finish at Mûr-de-Bretagne Guerlédan (2km at 6.9%). Rolling out of Saint-Malo, today’s route serves up 2,450 metres of elevation gain, with 197 km of racing and two ascents of the decisive climb of the day.
The gods of cycling, alive and passed, will be watching the peloton today. Bretagne has produced some of the greatest champions in the history of the Tour, including four overall winners: Lucien Petit-Breton (1907, 1908), Jean Robic (1947), Louison Bobet (1953, 1954, 1955) and Bernard Hinault (1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985).
Mathieu Van der Poel starts the day with the maillot jaune once again. After he lost the overall lead to Tadej Pogacar in the individual time-trial, the Oranje star reclaimed the Maillot Jaune yesterday with the tightest margin: 1”! Such a gap after six stages had not been seen since 2011, when Thor Hushovd led GC 1” ahead of Cadel Evans, winner in Mûr-de-Bretagne a couple of days earlier. Remco Evenepoel completes the current top 3 (+43”), ahead of Kévin Vauquelin (+1’00”).
Out of the neutral start, attacks began immediately. Victor Campenaerts and Wout Van Aert went with Mathieu Burgaudeau (Total Energies), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) and Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) are among the riders who followed their move.
Van Aert and Schmid survived, if briefly, before being caught around km20.
Alaphilippe made his attack at km 21, followed byIvan Garcia Cortina (Movistar), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Wout van Aert and Schmid again. The peloton was not happy with Van Aert off the front, so the break was quickly reeled in.
Thomas made another go with Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Marco Haller (Tudor), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar). The peloton trailed by 15” at km 56. Solar and Amerail both try to stir the peloton into action, but the break holds. At km70, the group led by 1’30”.
This is to be one of Geraint Thomas’ last chances to shine. At age 39, 2025 will be his last year as a pro.
Garcia Cortina took the points at the intermediate sprint and the gap was down to 1 minute soon afterwards.
With 42 to go, Haller was the first to drop out of the breakaway.
Mûr-de-Bretagne was in sight! The riders reached the twon with 20 kilometres to go and immediately face the Côte du village de Mûr-de-Bretagne (1.6km at 4.1%) before they entered the closing circuit and cross the finish line for the first time. Then, a 15.3-km loop led them back to the finish.
Visma-Lease a Bike was at the front of the bunch.
Costiou led the break up to the summit as Geraint Thomas got dropped.
Back in the peloton, it was Simon Yates upping the ante, with Vingegaard on his wheel. Van Der Poel was struggling.
On the descent after the first climb, Van Aert accelerated with Vauquelin and Haig on his wheel. Wellens drove the bunch right behind them.
With 12km to go, Costiou gets caught.
Crash! Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) are among the riders most affected.
With 5 kilometres to go, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) still drives the bunch. Tim Wellens is at the front, with Tadej Pogacar on his wheel.
Tadej Pogacar accelerated with 1.7km to go. Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard stay with him.
Evenepoel pulls at the front. Vauquelin drives the chase, with Jorgenson on his wheel.
Into the last kilometer, Evenepoel still led the way, followed by Pogacar, Vingegaard, Vauquelin, Jorgenson, Narvaez, Gall, Onley and Laurance.
Stage 7 Brief Results:
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), s.t.
- Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), +2”
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), s.t.
- Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), s.t.
General Classification After Stage 7
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), +54”
- Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), +1’11”
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), +1’17”
- Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), +1’29”
“Super Happy”
“I am super happy with the win, today. We did an almost perfect day. Unfortunately, João crashed and I hope he is ok. If he is ok, then it is a perfect day. If he is not, then this victory is for him,” Pogacar told the media.
“Of course, I think me and Mathieu [van der Poel] both know this finish really well. We both have nice memories from here, and we wanted more or less the same thing: to win on this iconic climb. I think maybe he left too much on the road yesterday so we couldn’t have this rematch, but for me this day went super and how we planned. The win is amazing.
“We did an amazing job today, all the teammates were perfect. It was a hot day, we spent a lot of energy to cool down the bodies and also it was a super fast, hard day. We had a plan and we stuck to it.
“Tim [Wellens] led me out to the bottom of the climb. Normally, João [Almeida] would be there but he crashed, so Jhony [Narváez] came through in the last kilometre and he did a super good job to keep it under control until the last sprint. It was perfect for me.”
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