Tour de France: Wout van Aert wins stage 7

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Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) took his second win of the Tour de France on stage 7 on a day that saw the race blown to pieces by crosswinds. The Belgian came through with a strong sprint ahead in Lavur to win ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen (NTT Pro Cycling) and Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels Vital Concept).

The win marked Van Aert’s second stage win in three days and the third of his short but incredible career. It was a double victory for the team after they helped to split the race with just over 40km to go in a move that saw them collaborate with rivals Ineos Grenadiers as both teams looked to exploit the opposition in the crosswinds. 

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) both missed the split and would lose well over a minute at the finish but they weren’t the only riders to see their GC bids dented with the Trek-Segafredo duo of Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema both missing out. Richard Carapaz, also lost time after he was forced to drop back after a late mechanical on a day that also saw the peloton fracture as early as the first climb due to extensive pressure from Peter Sagan and his Bora-hansgrohe team.

In a messy sprint, NTT took control in the final 500m as they looked to deliver Boasson Hagen to his fourth career stage win but the Norwegian was forced to the front slightly too early with Julian Alaphilippe briefly in contention until a touch of wheel with Jasper Stuyven. On the far side, Van Aert had a clear line to the finish and with his current form there was no stopping the young Belgian. Sagan, for all the effort from his team, could only manage 12th at the line after getting boxed in and being forced to slow. His consolation came from the fact that he now leads the green jersey by nine points ahead of Sam Bennett.

"I'm really proud of this win. Straight from the gun it was all out and I have to say that it was an impressive stage from Bora-Hansgrohe because they went flat out on the first KOM and made sure a lot of sprinters were dropped already. After that, it was always hectic and everyone feared the crosswinds," Van Aert said at the finish.

"In the final, we saw that it was worth it to put a lot of energy into positioning, and I was with Primoz [Roglic] the whole stage in the front, so it was a good day for the team. A few favourites from the GC lost a lot of time. It was a good finish and incredible to win."

How it unfolded

The writing was on the wall in Millau as an increased number of teams warmed-up on the rollers, clearly fully anticipating a full-throttle depart for the 168km stage to Lavur. Beniot Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) was the first rider to break free, with the king of the mountains leader moving clear in a bid to take the maximum points on offer over the top of the third category climb of the Cote de Luzencon.

The Frenchman was briefly joined by Michael Schar (CCC Team) and it looked as though the early break was forming but Bora-hansgrohe and Peter Sagan clearly had other ideas with the German team stepping up and setting a blistering pace on the early slopes. This was a perfectly orchestrated move for a team making use of their climbing firepower as one by one the sprinters began to slip back.

Caleb Ewan, Sam Bennett, and even the world champion Mads Pedersen began to struggle under the pressure as the peloton split into three clear groups. Julian Alaphilippe and his QuickStep team looked caught in two minds as they tried to cover the Frenchman in the front group and at the same time drop back to protect Bennett in the second group. For some time it looked as though Bennett’s group would catch the yellow jersey group but on an uncategorized climb and with cross-winds swirling Bora-hansgrohe turned their advantage from seconds and into minutes.

Sagan and his team were clearly on a mission, enticed by the terrain and the intermediate sprint at 58km and on the long but shallow climb of the Col de Peyronnenc the lead began to expand even further and by the sprint – won by Matteo Trentin, with Sagan in seconds – the gap to a group including Bennett stood at 2’21 and with Evan at almost five minutes.

The gap continued to expand as Bora and B&B Hotels-Vital Concept, who working for Bryan Coquard, looked to ensure that Bennett wouldn’t return.

Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) soon went on a long and fruitless break but the experienced Belgian never managed to draw out more than 50 seconds as the sprinters’ teams remaining at the front of the race kept the pace high.

Chaos in the crosswinds

The conditions changed once more with just over 40km to go when the race changed direction and the wind turned into a cross-wind tailwind. De Gendt’s time off the front was soon ended as Ineos and Bernal instigated the acceleration with Amador and Kwiatkowski setting a furious pace. Tadej Pogacar had suffered a puncture just a few kilometers earlier and Mikel Landa had a small tumble with two of his teammates, and both riders were caught out when the leading group split into three distinct echelons.

Julian Alaphilippe and the yellow jersey Adam Yates were both present, while Primož Roglič had plenty of cover too. Thibaut Pinot was also present with Nairo Quintana and EF Pro Cycling’s Rigoberto Urán and Sergio Higuita also accounted for but the list of general classification causalities were extensive with Richie Porte, and Bauke Mollema, both cut adrift. CCC also missed out with both Greg Van Avermaet and Trentin also in the group with Pogacar as the gap expanded to a minute with 20km to go.

Richard Carapaz fell out of the leading group too due a mechanical with just over 11km to go as Astana, FDJ, and Jumbo Visma made this the most defining GC stage of the race so far.