2025 Tour de France Stage 7 Report: Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates XRG) took his second 2025 Tour de France stage victory on the summit of the Mur-de-Bretagne. The Slovenian beat Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and took the leader’s yellow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who was dropped early on the final climb. Four years after Mathieu van der Poel’s legendary victory, the Tour peloton returned to the Mur-de-Bretagne. Van der Poel said it was a “special stage,” but he wasn’t sure whether he could compete for the stage win again, like in 2021. On stage 6, the Dutchman had worked all day in the break to earn him the yellow jersey by just 1 second.
The final kilometre of stage 7
Race director, Christian Prudhomme: “The peloton’s stay in Brittany will kick off with another contest between the puncheurs. After leaving Saint-Malo and heading for Saint-Brieuc, history buffs will recall the exploits of Bernard Hinault as the race passes through his home village of Yffiniac. But everyone’s attention will be focused very much on the present as the double ascent of the Côte de Mûr-de-Bretagne approaches. A warning to attackers who are a bit too eager: it’s a climb where tactical sense is almost as decisive as physical strength.”
Stage 7 profile
Mathieu van der Poel only had a 1 second lead on Tadej Pogačar at the start
An iconic venue such as Mûr-de-Bretagne called for a thrilling battle between the biggest names of cycling, and it delivered, as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates XRG) asserted his iridescent dominance, claiming his second victory in this year’s Tour de France. On a day that celebrated Bernard Hinault’s legacy, the Slovenian star mastered the final gradients to swap again his rainbow jersey for the Maillot Jaune and take his 19th Tour stage win. This is 42nd time Pogačar leads the overall standings, a tally that puts him level with Jacques Anquetil as the fifth rider with the most yellow jerseys in the Tour de France. Jonas Vingegaard and Oscar Onley completed the stage top-3 while Mathieu Van der Poel, 22nd on his return to Mûr-de-Bretagne, dropped down to the 5th position overall (at 1:29).
Nice day to be on a Breton beach
The peloton lined up in Saint-Malo with 179 riders, with another explosive finale in sight, many were eager to break away, after Ben Healy’s triumph in Vire Normandie on day 6.
Tour winner, Geraint Thomas was in the ‘break of the day’
G makes the break
Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) immediately launched an attack with Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), but the duo only manage to stay in the lead for 20 kilometres. The tone is set in the peloton, with a blistering pace to prevent the formation of a large group. In the wake of these early attackers, numerous riders made repeated attempts to escape, including tireless attackers such as Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ).
Stage 7 passed through five time Tour winner, Brenard Hinault’s home town of Yffiniac
After one hour, the peloton had covered 53.7 kilometres. It was only at kilometre 55 that a group gets away with Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Geraint Thomas (INEOS-Grenadiers), Marco Haller (Tudor), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar).
A top day for Costiou
Costiou enjoys his day in Brittany
More riders wanted to join them at the front but UAE Team Emirates XRG controled any further attempts to get away. Nils Politt received the support of Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to control the attackers. The gap never got higher than 1:40, as the race passed through Yffiniac (120.5km). Onto the climbs of the day, packed inside the last 20 kilometres, the gap droped down to 1 minute and Visma | Lease a Bike took the reins of the bunch.
Costiou, one of the seven Breton riders in the race, dropped his breakaway companions on the first ascent of Mûr-de-Bretagne. On the line, he maintained a gap of 20 seconds to the 35-man GC group. He was eventually caught with 12 kilometres to go.
Best young rider and 3rd overall, Remco Evenepoel had a problem, but fought back to the peloton
Almeida goes down, Pogačar takes off
With Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at the helm, the peloton fly towards the second ascent of Mûr-de-Bretagne. But a hard tumble with 6 kilometres to go takes Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) out of the equation.
Wellens led-out
Tim Wellens (UAE Emirates XRG) leads Pogačar at the bottom of the ascent (2km at 6.9% with gradients up to 15%). After a first acceleration from the Slovenian, nine riders face off in the final sprint… And nobody can match Pogačar’s pace when he sprints to the line ahead of Vingegaard and Picnic PostNL’s Oscar Onley at 2 seconds.
Tadej Pogačar: Another stage win and back in yellow
Pogačar regained the Maillot Jaune on the eve of the stage to Laval, where he had claimed the overall lead in the 2021 Tour. He is now up to 42 Yellow Jerseys, as many as Jacques Anquetil, in fifth position of the all-time ranking.
Van der Poel lost well over a minute
Stage winner and overall leader, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates XRG): “I’m super happy with the win today. But not everything is perfect, Joao [Almeida] is going for x-rays after his crash. Of course, it’s beautiful to be in yellow and win the stage but like Tim [Wellens] just told me, it was a luxury to have Joao so close in GC. It was a good opportunity for him as well. He’s in great shape so I really hope it’s nothing broken and he can continue. Mathieu [Van der Poel] and I both know this finish very well, with some nice memories. We wanted the same thing, to win on that iconic climb but I think maybe he left too much energy on the road yesterday to be up there today. For me, the day went like we planned. We did an amazing job, all the teammates were perfect. It was a hot day, super fast… We spent a lot of energy but we had a plan, we stuck to it, and we won. Tim led me out to the bottom of the dial climb. Normally, Joao should have been there but I could follow Remco [Evenepoel]’s slipstream. And then Narvaez did a superb job to keep things under control until the sprint. I can be confident in my sprint, especially with a teammate to set me up. The last two days, it was some strange racing from Visma. Let’s see their approach in the next days. The week-end will be easier and then stage 10 will be a proper hard day of suffering with hot temperatures and lots of climbs all day. There can be some movements but we’ll see then.”
Pog yellow again
Stage 8 is a very flat stage heading out of Brittany and the likelihood is that the stage will finish with a bunch sprint, although the finish line comes at the end of a kilometre-long, rising false flat
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Tour de France Stage 7 Result:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Emirates XRG in 4:05:39
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike
3. Oscar Onley (GB) Team Picnic PostNL at 0:02
4. Felix Gall (Aust) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale
5. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike
6. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
7. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels
8. Jhonnatan Manuel Narváez (Ecu) UAE Emirates XRG at 0:07
9. Axel Laurance (Fra) INEOS Grenadiers at 0:15
10. Tobias Halland (Nor) Johannessen Uno-X Mobility at 0:21.
Tour de France Overall After Stage 7:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Emirates XRG in 25:58:04
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 0:54
3. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels at 1:11
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 1:17
5. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck at 1:29
6. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 1:34
7. Oscar Onley (GB) Team Picnic PostNL at 2:49
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 3:02
9. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 3:06
10. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek at 3:43.
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