Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) battled hard up the super steep and dusty Super Planche des Belles Filles on stage 7 of the Tour de France, but his dream of winning the stage was shattered 100 metres before the finish.
Pogacar and Vingegaard catch up with Kämna shortly before the finish
Dominator and stage winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and the day's runner-up Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) roared past Kämna in the 24 per cent steep finale, finishing fourth behind Primoz Roglic on the seventh stage of the Tour de France.
At the first mountain finish of the Tour de France, Pogacar extended his lead in the overall standings and is 35 seconds ahead of Vingegaard. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) is 1:10 minutes back in third place.
Bora captain Vlasov loses a lot of time
Kämna's captain Aleksandr Vlasov suffered a serious setback of more than a minute and slipped out of the top ten in the overall standings. This means that the podium he is aiming for is likely to be a mammoth task for the Russian.
At the foot of the Super Planche des Belles Filles, Maximilian Schachmann had brought his team-mate Kämna into position as part of a leading group, with only the Belgian Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Victorious) and Simon Geschke (Cofidis) followed. Geschke attacked first and the Berlin pulled away a little. Kämna tactically stayed on Teuns' rear wheel. Only five kilometres before the summit did the North German attack again, jumped ahead of Teuns to Geschke and left the German veteran behind with another attack a little later.
Schachmann now virtually in the yellow jersey
The German team Bora-Hansgrohe had already let it be known days ago that they wanted to send a rider into the breakaway. No sooner said than done. It took the first 50 kilometres of the race to form a group. But then Schachmann, Kämna and the Cofidis pro Geschke were in a group of seven. The lead quickly grew to almost three minutes and Schachmann virtually rode in the yellow jersey.
VIDEO: 15 Tour de France terms explained
This obviously didn't suit Pogacar and he let his team work in the peloton. The lead shrank to just under two minutes and remained there for a few kilometres. Then Kämna and Schachmann attacked before the first climb of the day, the Col de Grosse Pierre. Although the group eventually rode together again, the pace remained high. Pogacar's team worked at the back of the peloton, but the leading group pulled away to more than three minutes. They went into the final climb with a lead of around one and a half minutes.
Pogacar's rivals keep a low profile
The Jumbo-Visma team, led by last year's runner-up Jonas Vingegaard, behaved much more cautiously until the final climb. After the sixth stage, Schachmann massively criticised the team's riding style, especially that of their star Primoz Roglic.
"In any case, Jumbo needs to get a grip on himself. Roglic caused this crash again, because they just ride the last few centimetres like broken riders, can't do it and then hang themselves on the edge of the road. That's a danger to all riders and totally unnecessary," said Schachmann.
In the scene mentioned by Schachmann around 13 kilometres before the finish in Longwy, it is not clear from the TV images whether Primoz Roglic caused the crash on Thursday. All that can be seen is another rider falling, Roglic swerving out of the way and riding through the ditch. "Where there's no room, there's no room at that moment. You don't need to switch everyone off," said Schachmann.
Copyright 2022, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved
