It’s on to stage eight of the 2022 Tour de France on Saturday as the riders’ undertake the 186.5 km (115.9 mi) medium-mountain stage from Dole in eastern France to Lausanne in Switzerland.
Friday’s action brought with it the first mountain stage of the 2022 Tour with a summit finish at La Planche des Belles Filles and it was Tadej Pogacar (10/1 Stage 8 Outright), champion in 2020 and 2021, who added the stage seven win to his stage six triumph on Thursday.
The Slovenian managed to hold off Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard to cross the line first, as the duo recorded the same time of 3hrs 58mins 40secs, while Primoz Roglic was 12 seconds back and Lennard Kamna a further two behind.
Geraint Thomas, champion back in 2018, managed to finish fifth and when speaking after stage seven, he was in a positive mood, saying: “It’s good that we [the Ineos Grenadiers riders] are all there for going into the next two weeks as well.
“We haven’t even done a proper mountain stage yet. We will try to use those numbers sensibly and not just attack for the hell of it and see what we can do.”
Pogacar’s victory keeps him at the top of the general classification with a time of 23hrs 43mins 14secs, 35 secs ahead of Vingegaard and 1mins 10secs in front of Thomas, and the Yellow Jersey holder will be hoping to press home his advantage on Saturday.
Speaking after his second stage win of 2022, the 23-year-old is certainly wary of the threat that Vingegaard poses, saying: “I think right now Vingegaard is one of the strongest climbers in the world, probably the best climber in the world and a really compact rider with a really strong team around him.”
With seven stages gone, Pogacar is 1/4 to win the Tour de France for the third straight year, while Vingegaard is priced at 3/1 and Thomas can be backed at 20/1 for his second title.
