cycling: Tour de France stage #7: Cummings conquers the Col d'Aspin as a soloist

Cycling: Stephen Cummings gave the Dimension Data team their fourth victory on the 7th stage of the Tour de France after the successes of Mark Cavendish. As a soloist, he won out of an initially 29-strong lead group and was clearly the strongest up to the Col d'Aspin. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) not only defended his yellow jersey but extended the lead by being part of the breakaway. The favorites for the Tour de France victory, on the other hand, did not attack each other, but were rudely stopped by the arch one kilometer from the finish.

The yellow Van Avermaet creeps into the front group

After a few flat stages and occasionally hilly terrain, things should really get down to business today. The mountainous stage from L'Isle-Jourdain to Lac de Payolle covered 162,5 km. The finish line was just seven kilometers behind the Col d'Aspin, one of the most iconic and iconic mountains in Tour history. No wonder that numerous teams and drivers wanted to position themselves at the front of the leading group. In the end, all but two teams succeeded, because a total of 29 riders were able to break away from the field, including Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo), Vasil Kiryienka (Sky), Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data), Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar), Daryl Impey (Orica-BikeExchange), Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin), Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step), Paul Martens (LottoNL-Jumbo) and the overall leader Greg Van Avermaet (BMC). All teams except FDJ and Tinkoff were in the breakaway group, but it was Movistar and Sky who had to keep up the pace in the peloton in the end as Greg Van Avermaet's group quickly opened up a lead of over five minutes. Although the Belgian is not a climber, you wouldn't want to give him a ten-minute lead - especially since experience has shown that the yellow jersey gives you wings.

Cummings tries his hand at soloing

Due to the size of the group, the presence of the yellow jersey, and the triple strength of teams Cofidis and Cannondale, the lead group's cooperation as they neared the finish was lacking. After Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) won the first climb of the day up to the Côte de Capvern with around 45 km to go and thus clinched a point, the escape group splintered into several parts. The quartet of Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data), Daniel Navarro (Cofidis), Matti Breschel (Cannondale) and Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie) initially broke up before Cummings tried to be a soloist. In the end, the other three drivers were replaced by parts of the former 29-man lead group. Vincenzo Nibali, Simon Geschke and Greg Van Avermaet were also in the first chasing group. Meanwhile, almost five minutes behind the leaders, the field entered the legendary Col d'Aspin, where the sprinters fell out at the back right at the start and Team FDJ pushed the pace for Thibaut Pinot. An attack by Warren Barguil (Ag2r) fizzled out with absolutely no effect. Anything but ineffective was Nibali's increased pace, which completely broke up the chasing group. Van Avermaet could no longer follow. Only Navarro and Impey stayed behind Nibali, but they all lost time on leader Cummings.

Up to the devil's rag nothing going on with the favorites

Cummings drove recklessly towards the stage win as a soloist, while Nibali now even lost contact with Impey and Navarro. In the main draw, the Frenchmen Pinot and Barguil were no longer able to follow the pace and had to give up. Meanwhile, the mountain specialists Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) and Jarlinson Pantano (IAM), as well as Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quick Step) a little later, attacked without success and the group of favorites contested the descent together. It only got exciting when the arch of the last kilometer, which had been pumped up with air, collapsed and landed on the street. The group of favorites was held up so the judges decided to time the race at the three kilometer mark. However, this did not console Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange), who probably hurt himself. By this time, Stephen Cummings had long since crossed the finish line and was celebrating Team Dimension Data's fourth stage win. It should be a bit more exciting tomorrow when the first real battle will take place in the mountains.

Tour de France Stage #7 – The day's result

Tour de France Stage #7 – The General Classification