For the overall leader Tadej Pogacar it is a special climb - and snatches victory from a German professional cyclist on the last steep meters. Lennard Kämna leads until just before the finish before the tour favorites fly in and just prevent his stage success.
Lennard Kämna doggedly struggled up the super steep and dusty Super Planche des Belles Filles, but the dream of winning the stage was shattered 100 meters from the finish. Dominator and stage winner Tadej Pogacar and day second Jonas Vingegaard rushed past Kämna in the 24 percent steep finale, who ended up fourth behind Primoz Roglic on the seventh stage of the Tour de France.
On the first mountain finish of the Tour, Pogacar extended his lead in the standings and is 35 seconds clear of Vingegaard. Geraint Thomas is third, 1:10 minutes back. Kämna's captain Alexander Wlassow received a sensitive setback of more than a minute and slipped out of the top ten in the overall standings. This should also make the podium a mammoth task for the Russian.
At the foot of the Super Planche des Belles Filles, Maximilian Schachmann had positioned his teammate Kämna as part of a leading group, followed only by Belgian Dylan Teuns and Simon Geschke. First Geschke attacked, the Berliner pulled away a bit. Kämna tactically stayed on Teuns' rear wheel. Only five kilometers before the summit did the North German start again, jumped from Teuns to Geschke and left the German veteran behind with another start a little later.
The German team Bora-hansgrohe announced days ago that they wanted to send a driver to the breakaway group. Said and done. It took the first 50 kilometers of the race for a group to stand still. But then there were Schachmann and Kämna as well as the Cofidis professional Geschke in a group of seven. The lead quickly grew to almost three minutes and Schachmann virtually drove in the yellow jersey.
Apparently Pogacar didn't like that and he let his team work in the field. The lead shrank to just under two minutes and stayed there for a few kilometers. Then Kämna and Schachmann attacked before the first climb of the day, the Col de Grosse Pierre. Although the group finally drove back together, the pace remained high. Pogacar's team worked at the back of the pack, but the leading group pulled away by more than three minutes. With a lead of about one and a half minutes, we started the final ascent.
The Jumbo-Visma team around Jonas Vingegaard, who came second last year, behaved much more cautiously until the final climb. After the sixth stage, Schachmann had massively criticized the team's driving style, especially their star Primoz Roglic. "In any case, Jumbo has to get over it a bit. Roglic caused this fall again because they just drive like broken ones for the last few centimeters, can't do it, then hang themselves on the roadside. It's a hazard for all drivers and total unnecessary," said Schachmann.
In the scene mentioned by Schachmann about 13 kilometers from the finish in Longwy, the TV images do not make it clear whether Primoz Roglic caused the fall on Thursday. You can only see how another driver falls, Roglic avoids and drives a bit through the ditch. "Where there is no space, there is no space at the moment. You don't need to switch everyone off," said Schachmann.
