Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) sprints to stage 7 victory tour d France.

Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) sprint to stage 7 victory  in Chartres, Tour d France.

Dylan delivered a powerful sprint to beat Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the bunch sprint finish.

How it unfolded

Flat stages on this Tour have tended to follow a set pattern, whereby a break made up of riders from wildcard teams goes in the opening kilometre and then gets pegged back by the sprinters’ teams in the final hour, but that tacit understanding seemed to break down on the Tour’s longest day.

Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) reported for duty when the flag dropped in Fougères and promptly attacked, only to relent once it became apparent that nobody else wanted to come with him. His teammate Thomas Degand soon repeated the same move, building a lead of almost a minute, but knocked off his effort on the instructions of his directeur sportif.

Top Ten General Classification Standings.

1, Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) BMC Racing Team 28:19:25,
2, Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) Team Sky 00:00:06,
3, Tejay van Garderen (United State) BMC Racing Team 00:00:08,
4, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:09,
5, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:15,
6, Bob Jungels (Luxembourg) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:21,
7, Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 00:00:48,
8, Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Movistar Team 00:00:54,
9, Rafal Majka (Poland) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:55,
10, Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) Astana Pro Team 00:00:56.