CAVENDISH ADMITS HE’S STRUGGLING

DYLAN GROENEWEGEN won stage seven of the Tour de France in Chartres as Mark Cavendish was left to admit he was struggling to keep up with his rivals. Dutchman Groenewegen showed impressive power to burst clear of Quick-Step Floors’ Fernando Gaviria and world champion Peter Sagan of BoraHansgrohe at the top of a gradual climb to the finish of the 231kilometre stage from Fougeres. It was a first stage win of this Tour for the LottoNL-Jumbo rider. Cavendish, (inset), who has 30 career Tour stage wins to leave him four short of Eddy Merckx’s record, looked in good position in the final few hundred metres but sat up after a touch of wheels with Kristoff. ‘I was following quite good wheels but it was choppy. I was picking wheels and seemed to be in a good position,’ the Manxman said. ‘But when I went to go, Quick-Step and Bora have just got a different kind of level of top speed. I was quite excited and when I kicked my power was pretty good actually, but it wasn’t enough. ‘I just keep trying, our backs are against the wall all the time here. It’s not going to be easy to win here but we keep trying.’ The stage, the longest of this year’s Tour, was ridden at a serene pace at times, but things came to life in the final 10 kilometres as Chartres’ NotreDame Cathedral slid into view. Cavendish’s Dimension Data team were still well placed after a double righthander with two kilometres to go strung out the peloton, but he did not have the power needed at the top of the gradual climb to the line. The general classification contenders all crossed the line in the main group, but BMC’s Greg Van Avermaet doubled his slender advantage in yellow to six seconds by winning the bonus sprint 31km from home. Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas remains in second place, with Van Avermaet’s team-mate Tejay Van Garderen in third, eight seconds back. MitcheltonScott’s Adam Yates and Sky’s Chris Froome remain 13th and 14th, with their deficit to yellow growing to 65 seconds. Meanwhile, Team Sky denied they had a leadership battle brewing at the Tour despite Thomas sitting more than a minute clear of Froome. Froome lost almost a minute to his teammate on the opening stage of the Tour when he crashed in a field, and gave up another five seconds when he was gapped slightly on the Murde-Bretagne on Thursday. Froome now trails Thomas by 59 seconds. Team Sky sport director Nico Portal, insisted nothing had changed in terms of leadership. ‘He [Froome] is our leader,’ said Portal. ‘It’s good to have ‘G’ [Thomas] in the mix as well. It opens up more options in the second and third weeks if you have some strategies.’