Merlier Banishes the Bunch in Bordeaux: A Devastating Late Surge Delivers Stage 7 Despite a Missing Lead-Out Man
Tim Merlier proved he could manage without his trusty lead-out man Bert Van Lerberghe, winning stage 7 of the Tour de France in a bunch sprint on the wide boulevards of Bordeaux. Beaten from too far back in Pau on Wednesday, and a man down after Van Lerberghe's abandon in the Pyrenean heat, the Soudal Quick-Step sprinter floated beautifully through the hectic final kilometres before producing a devastating acceleration inside the last 200 metres, brushing off his shoulders as he crossed the line after 3:44:20 of racing over the 175km from Hagetmau.
Second place went to Søren Wærenskjold, who jumped earlier but was passed decisively by Merlier on the left-hand side of the road — though the big Norwegian's 50 points vaulted him from 21st to seventh in the points classification, another strong day in a Tour that keeps giving for Uno-X Mobility. Biniam Girmay took third for NSN Cycling Team ahead of Max Kanter, whose XDS Astana train once again delivered him into contention without quite delivering the win.
The great losers of the day were Alpecin-Premier Tech. The Belgian squad dominated the run-in with an old-fashioned five-man train peeling off in turn from 2.5km out, laying out the carpet for Jasper Philipsen. But Mathieu van der Poel perhaps dropped his sprinter off too early, at 250 metres, and Philipsen — brushing shoulders with Fernando Gaviria as Merlier darted past on the left — faded to fifth in the headwind. After Kooij in Pau and now Merlier in Bordeaux, the pressure on cycling's winningest active sprinter is quietly mounting.
The day itself followed the familiar grammar of a July sprint stage. Baptiste Veistroffer headed up the road for Lotto-Intermarché, this time with a single companion in Caja Rural's Jakub Otruba, and the pair were kept on a leash that stretched and shortened all afternoon. At the intermediate sprint in Landiras, 55km from the line, green jersey Mads Pedersen came out on top of the bunch battle behind the break, extending his overall lead in the points competition even before the finale. Veistroffer took the single mountain point on the category 4 Côte de Béguey for good measure.
Despite a late acceleration from Jonas Abrahamsen with just over 10km to go, the sprint trains assembled on the narrow approach roads and the race wound itself up for the expected finale. Merlier, popped into the thick of it by Jasper Stuyven, described the finish with typical understatement: "Perfectly? I don't know. It was a mess to get in position but I made it thanks to the team."
The win is Merlier's fourth at the Tour de France in just three appearances, following his double last year and his debut victory back in 2021. Stage 5 winner Olav Kooij, out of position and out of the picture in the finale, will have to wait for Bergerac tomorrow for revenge.
There was no change at the top of the general classification on a quiet day for Tadej Pogačar, who retains yellow for UAE Team Emirates-XRG with 2:42 over Jonas Vingegaard — and with another sprinters' day on the menu on Saturday, the truce between the GC men should hold at least one day longer.