STAGE 7 Vierzon FRIDAY 249.1KM › Le JULY Creusot 2

SATURDAY JULY 3 Oyonnax › Le Grand- Bornand 150.8KM

Le marteau-pilon du Creusot, the Creusot steam hammer, is a relic of the industrial past of the Sâone-et-Loire city. Built in 1877, it was the world’s most powerful hammer, capable of delivering a blow of 100 tonnes. In a living demonstration of Le Creusot’s transition from industrial powerhouse to tourist destination, it is now one of the city’s most popular attractions.

Race leader Mathieu van der Poel might have cracked a wry smile at Le Creusot’s high-impact machinery. He applied a blow of equal pressure to the defending champion Tadej Pogačar, whose UAE Emirates team took their eye off the ball when a 28-rider break including Van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Mark Cavendish, Vincenzo Nibali and many more very strong riders went up the road,

With such a strong and motivated group, UAE had no chance of catching them. Until this point in the Tour, Pogačar, had been untouchable. However, the break stayed away and Pogačar’s compatriot Matej Mohorič won. Pogačar could breathe a sigh of relief that while his team had lost control and looked vulnerable, nobody significant had gained enough time to threaten his position as race favourite. There was no doubt that he remained strong enough to withstand the pressure of the Tour, but his team was another thing entirely.

A raging storm hit the 2021 Tour de France as the race arrived in the Alps for the first real test in the mountains. The rain that soaked the peloton almost all day did nothing to dampen Tadej Pogačar’s parade as he unleashed a long-range, 30-kilometre solo attack, blowing away his rivals by over three minutes at the finish line and storming into the yellow jersey.

The Tour’s first mountain stage is typically a cagey affair, as GC riders daren’t play their cards too early. But with the day again characterised by any lack of real order, the first 80km were instead marked by repeated attacks. Even Pogačar got in on the act. At one point he ended up in the breakaway following Wout van Aert, who wanted to distance him to gain the yellow jersey. The result was that it took over half of the stage for any sort of equilibrium to be established, and a 21-rider break be given leeway, by which point the peloton had been significantly reduced in size.

When Pogačar eventually launched, dropping Richard Carapaz, he single handedly almost bridged a five-minute gap to the break. Dylan Teuns managed to hold off the Slovenian’s charge to win, but in a single day, Pogačar had washed away the ambitions of his rivals. The forecast for the rest of their Tour looked very damp indeed.