The finish of stage 7 of the Tour de France in Mûr-de-Bretagne proved rather harsh for Groupama-FDJ on Friday. Unfortunately for Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, this meant a hard crash just six kilometres from the finish. The French climber managed to resume the race but lost two minutes at the finish. As for Romain Grégoire, he was unable to compete with the very best this time and finished thirteenth. The peloton now heads into two sprint stages.
Four years after its last visit, the Tour de France returned to Mûr-de-Bretagne on Friday for the seventh stage of the “Grande Boucle”. And as in 2021, the iconic Breton climb featured twice in the final part of the race. Another battle between the punchers and climbers was expected, but some also considered the possibility of a victorious breakaway. This is why the first hour of racing, covered at a very high pace, offered a proper fight. The Groupama-FDJ cycling team joined in the various attacks, but it was ultimately a group of barely five men that broke away after around fifty kilometres. “We quickly understood that Pogacar wanted to win the stage, that UAE wanted to control it, so we didn’t push too hard either,” commented Benoît Vaugrenard. “The guys still tried, because you never know, but there was no point wasting too much energy joining the breakaway today”. Indeed, the fugitives were then kept within short distance throughout the day, and never enjoyed a two-minute lead.
“The only regret is Guillaume’s crash,” Benoît Vaugrenard
In the final thirty kilometres, the pace increased both in front and in the back, and the peloton approached the final climbs at full speed. “The goal was to gather around Romain and Guillaume because we knew it would go very fast on the first ascent of Mûr-de-Bretagne,” added Benoît Vaugrenard. The confirmation came quickly enough, and barely forty riders made the cut at the top of the first climb, including Romain Grégoire, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, and Quentin Pacher. “It was another ultra-fast final and day,” said the youngest of them. Controlled by the leaders’ teams, this reduced peloton then headed toward the final climb after a downhill of a few kilometres. Unfortunately, a collision at full speed caused a significant crash with six kilometres to go, and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet was unable to avoid it. “It’s the day’s bad news“, said Benoît. “He changed bikes and was able to finish. Considering the crash he suffered, it looks ok for now, but the proper answer will only come tomorrow. It’s a pity.”
In a leading peloton reduced to around thirty men, Quentin Pacher kept on working for Romain Grégoire. However, the young man’s hopes didn’t last long. “It went flat-out from the bottom, and that was at the advantage of the best climbers,” he said. “You needed to withstand this first effort in the first kilometre of the climbing, but it was going a little too fast for me and I wasn’t able to hang on. It’s a shame, because if I had held on until the red flame, it would have been possible to stay in the wheels afterward. I did what I could with the legs I had, but I didn’t have the super legs today.” “It climbed very fast, and we only find GC guys in the first seven positions,” added Benoît. “Romain did his best, but it was a bit too hard. The only regret today is Guillaume’s crash.” While Romain Grégoire ultimately took thirteenth place, twenty-one seconds behind Tadej Pogacar, who got back in yellow, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet lost 2’17 on the line. He now sits 20th overall, 8’13 behind the Slovenian, as a weekend dedicated to sprinters comes. “Tomorrow, the finish will be slightly uphill near Laval, and that could suit Paul,” concluded Benoît.
