Van Aert wins wind-blown stage seven of Tour de France
Wout Van Aert picked up a second win of the 2020 Tour de France as aggressive tactics and crosswinds combined to produce an enthralling race that claimed several victims.
British rider Adam Yates retained the yellow jersey while Peter Sagan took the green points jersey after his Bora team led a carefully plotted and brilliantly executed attack to drop his sprint rivals.
The unflappable Yates said he had been expecting an easy day, on what was billed as a straightforward flat run through France’s rugby club heartland round Albi, ahead of two monster Pyrenean stages.
“It was full gas all the way today, from start to finish there were anxious moments,” said the yellow jersey whose rivals young Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, Colombian Richard Carapaz, Spaniard Mikal Landa and Australian veteran Richie Porte all trailed home 1:21s adrift.
The plot unfolded from 150km as Bora launched an unexpected assault, cranking up the pace with attacks which succeeded in exploiting the crosswinds, splitting the pack and shedding Sagan’s rivals in the points classification, Irishman Sam Bennett who started the day in green, and Australian Caleb Ewan.
“Our director was against the idea at first, but we did this once in 2013 and it worked, I won,” said Sagan, who only came 13th after his bike lost its chain at the critical moment in the sprint.
Egan Bernal the 23-year-old Ineos leader seemed unconcerned by teammate and compatriot Carapaz’s plunge down the standings. Carapaz, a Giro d’Italia champion has always looked liked the backup plan for Ineos.
“Today was okay, I’m more focussed on the weekend with two really hard mountain stages,” said the slightly built Bernal who performs remarkably well on the plains.
“I’m going back to my bus to relax and focus on the mountains,” he said.
Jumbo’s Belgian all-rounder Van Aert also won stage five and on Friday outsprinted a small leading group.