Tour de France 2023 stage 7 LIVE: Result and winner as Jasper Philipsen pips Mark Cavendish in Bordeaux
The Astana rider will be among the contenders as the peloton heads for Bordeaux
Jasper Philipsen won a dramatic sprint in the final metres of stage 7 of the Tour de France as he edged past Mark Cavendish in Bordeaux to stop the Brit earning a record breaking 35th stage win on Tour.
A long, flat stage left many riders in contention as Simon Guglielmi headed off on his own in a breakaway and never looked comfortable in that role.
For most of the day the general classification teams, including Jonas Vingegaard’s Jumbo Visma, took the time to rest up after a brutal few days in the mountains.
When the peloton finally hit Bordeaux the sprinters burst into action with Philipsen taking on an early attack 800 metres from the line. He left Caleb Ewan behind only for Cavendish to make a move on the outside and get the lead with 100m to go. Philipsen, however, was too savvy. He dropped onto Cavendish’s wheel and swept past the 38-year-old in the final few metres to win the stage and leave the Brit slumped over the handlebars is heartbreak.
Relive all the action from stage seven below:
Tour de France stage 7
33km to go: Mark Cavendish on winning today’s stage: “It’s another opportunity … it’s been nice to be in Bordeaux before. I won in 2010, so we’ll try and do the same today … It’s a nice boulevard sprint, just how I like it. We’ll see what happens.
“It’s just about staying up there. To put it simply. It’s about staying up there. The problem is all the sprinters teams and GC teams want to stay up there too. It’s going to take a lot of effort.”
Tour de France stage 7
35km to go: The pace is increasing at the front of the race with Latour and Peters bombing away from Simon Guglielmi. They’re over a minute ahead of the peloton and may be starting to think about a potential stage win.
That seems unlikely though.
Tour de France stage 7
45km to go: Belgian riders are the most successful here with 22 wins, one more than France (21); the Netherlands are in third place with 12 wins in Bordeaux.
Tour de France stage 7
50km to go: The peloton spreads out across the road as the sprinters and their teams position themselves ahead of the sprint finish. There’s a few tactics on play and no doubt more action and moving will take place across the final 50km of this stage.
Tour de France stage 7
58km to go: Guglielmi, Latour and Peters lead by 1’20’’. Guglielmi will be appreciating the help out front now.
Tour de France stage 7
65km to go: The most successful rider in Bordeaux is Eddy Merckx, with 4 wins: 3 times the “Circuit du Lac” Time Trial (1970, 1972, 1974) and Mont-de-Marsan to Bordeaux in 1971.
Walter Godefroot follows with 3 wins. Who’s going to win here in 2023?
Tour de France stage 7
74km to go: Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and Nans Peters (AG2R-Citroën) have gone after Simon Guglielmi, catching the leader with 74km still to go.
The peloton are only 25 seconds behind them though so you have to question the logic of expending the energy at this stage.
Tour de France stage 7
78km to go: Biniam Girmay took the points for second place with a well-timed push to the line as the sprinters took up the challenge of the intermediate sprint at Grignols.
Here’s the full result:
1. Simon Guglielmi, 20 pts
2. Biniam Girmay, 17 pts
3. Jasper Philipsen, 15 pts
4. Bryan Coquard, 13 pts
5. Jordi Meeus, 11 pts
6. Mads Pedersen, 10 pts
7. Corbin Strong, 9 pts
8. Alexander Kristoff, 8 pts
9. Mark Cavendish, 7 pts
10. Mikkel Bjerg, 6 pts
11. Alexis Renard, 5 pts
12. Tadej Pogacar, 4 pts
13. Matteo Trentin, 3 pts
14. Marc Soler, 2 pts
15. Kevin Vermaerke, 1 pt
Tour de France stage 7
82km to go: Simon Guglielmi has covered 41.3km in the third hour of racing. His average speed so far is 40.3km/h. His gap out front is falling rapidly and is now underneath two minutes.
On the intermediate sprint Guglielmi takes 20 points in the green jersey race which is a nice reward for his efforts today.
Behind him the sprinters get stuck into the action. Mark Cavendish decides not to challenge, he’ll be saving himself for the end of today’s stage.
Tour de France stage 7
87km to go: It’s the 80th stage finish in Bordeaux in the history of the Tour de France.
The capital city of the historical Aquitaine region is second to Paris (113 stages up to date) on the list of the hosting towns of the Tour de France.
The last one was stage 18 won in 2010 by Mark Cavendish who is in the peloton for the last time this year.
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