Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) bested Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) after 230km to win Stage 7 of the 2019 Tour de France in Chalon-sur-Saône on Friday. Groenewegen’s photofinish win should help to make up for the pain of falling on stage one on the Brussels home straight. Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) keeps the yellow jersey.
Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Gobert) and Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis) were the breakaway of the day. Riding against an unfavorable wind, the average speed did not exceed 35 km/h after three hours of racing.
The two friends shared the mountain points (two each), but with the peloton never giving them more than a 5’30” gap, they never hoped to win. The duo lasted 217.5 km, and Offredo took the combativity prize today.
“The first day wasn’t what I expected but now I’m back on top,” said the Jumbo-Visma man on the finish line on the banks of the Soane river on a baking afternoon.
Groenewegen was asked if he was the best pure sprinter in the world, but he refused to be drawn.
The 26-year-old is being compared to the great British sprinter Mark Cavendish, who won 30 stages of the Tour de France in his prime.
Slovakia’s Peter Sagan retained the sprinters’ points green jersey after finishing third.
“I stayed on Groenewegen’s wheel, but then I switched to Elia Viviani’s, wrong move, they shot past us,” said Sagan.
“These two guys (Groenewegen and Ewan) are much faster than me.”
Defending champion Geraint Thomas, who beat all his key rivals the day before, and his Ineos co-captain Egan Bernal finished safely in the pack.
“It was reassuring to see Geraint Thomas at this level,” said Ineos sports director Nicolas Portal, describing the Welshman’s performance as “morale boosting”.
“Yesterday was a kind of weird mountain stage and I’m just glad to be in front of everyone (the title contenders),” Thomas said at the start of Friday’s stage in the fortified town of Belfort.
Saturday’s stage features seven categorised climbs where home fans will be baying for Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe to try and regain the overall lead.
Alaphilippe was cheered for two days after taking the lead at Epernay, but agonisingly lost it by six seconds to Ciccone at La Planche des Belles Filles on Thursday.
“Tomorrow will be a very hard stage, I’ll need to have a very good day to keep the yellow jersey,” the 24-year-old Ciccone said.
Stage 7 Brief Results:
- Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) at 6h2’44” (B : 10″)
- Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) s.t. (B : 6″)
- Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t. (B : 4″)
- Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) s.t.
- Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 7:
- Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) 29h 17’39”
- Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) at 6″
- Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Merida) at 32″
- George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) at 47″
- Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) at 49″
- Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) at 53″
- Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) at 58″
- Steven Kruiswijk at 1’04”
- Michael Woods (EF Education First) at 1’13”
- Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First) at 1’15”
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