Matej Mohoric wins Tour de France Stage 7 with mammoth breakaway effort as van der Poel defends yellow

Matej Mohoric holds off contenders to win the longest mountain stage yet of the Tour de France as Mathieu van der Poel gains time on major rivals for the overall race lead and yellow jersey.

Matej Mohoric blasted his way across the stage finish line with a massive lead over Jasper Stuyvens after being part of the breakaway with Brent Van Moer for most of Stage 7 of the 108th Tour de France on Friday July 2.

Magnus Cort Nielsen came in third on the stage with Mathieu van der Poel placing fourth but maintaining his 30-second overall race lead with Wout Van Aert.

Tour de France Stage 7 sees yellow jersey in breakaway throughout

Mathieu van der Poel got into the breakaway with 28 other riders 50 kilometers into the 249-kilometer long stage from Vierzon to Le Creusot.

He stayed in it, overtaking other riders and gaining time on all his other rivals as he and Van Aert cruised to the finish line.

Primoz Roglic struggled on the stage, ending up at the back of the peloton where last year’s winner Tadej Pogacar had to make up for time lost to van der Poel.

Mohoric takes a Grand Tour stage win hat trick

Mohoric has now won a stage in each Grand Tour with Cuenca at La Vuelta 2017, Gualdo Tadino at Giro d’Italia in 2018 and now Le Creusot in the Tour de France.

The standings for the overall race win have now shifted and while van der Poel and Van Aert are at the top, Kasper Asgreen is now in third place overall at 1 minute 49 seconds behind the leader.

Mohoric has also carved out the fourth place spot for himself slotting in at 3 minutes 1 second behind the lead and his fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar saved enough time to come in at 3 minutes 43 seconds.

Vincenzo Nibali has taken sixth place with 4 minutes 12 seconds and Julian Alaphilippe has dropped to seventh with 4 minutes 23 seconds.

Alexey Lutsenko is eighth with 4 minutes 56 seconds, Pierre Latour ninth with 5 minutes 3 seconds and Rigoberto Uran rounds out the top-10 with 5 minutes 4 seconds.