{"id":45775,"date":"2025-07-12T07:57:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T14:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=45775"},"modified":"2025-07-12T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T17:00:09","slug":"tdf-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=45775","title":{"rendered":"TDF 7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Our continuing coverage of the other big event going on this month<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<style>\n  body, table, h2, h3, p, ul, li {\n    font-family: Aptos, Arial, sans-serif;\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n  <thead style=\"background-color: #4CAF50; color: white;\">\n    <tr>\n      <th>Stage<\/th>\n      <th>Date<\/th>\n      <th>Start > Finish<\/th>\n      <th>Type<\/th>\n      <th>Distance (km)<\/th>\n      <th>Distance (mi)<\/th>\n      <th>Winner<\/th>\n    <\/tr>\n  <\/thead>\n  <tbody>\n    <tr style=\"background-color: #f2f2f2;\">\n      <td>7<\/td>\n      <td>Fri 07\/11<\/td>\n      <td>Saint-Malo > M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne Guerl\u00e9dan<\/td>\n      <td>Hilly<\/td>\n      <td>197<\/td>\n      <td>122<\/td>\n      <td><b>Tadej Pogacar<\/b> (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)<\/td>\n    <\/tr>\n  <\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n<style>\n  body, table, h2, h3, p, ul, li {\n    font-family: Aptos, Arial, sans-serif;\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<p><b>Note on Pronunciation<\/b>: Tadej Pogacar\u2019s name is pronounced <i>TAH-day POH-gah-char<\/i> (the \u201c?\u201d sounds like \u201cch\u201d in \u201cchurch\u201d). If he can lead the Tour de France, we should be able to say his name right! ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s Note<\/strong>:  I am shaking my head as I read these 100+ mile distances day after day. I&#8217;m spending all summer training for a 100 miler (century) in September. Can&#8217;t imagine doing in back-to-back days, let alone all month long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even someone like Mathieu van der Poel, who has worn the yellow jersey (as the TDF leader) for 4 of the 7 stages so far, commented on the demands of the TDF, day after day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<style>\n  body, table, h2, h3, p, ul, li {\n    font-family: Aptos, Arial, sans-serif;\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<p><b> \u201cI sometimes wonder how the others recover so well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<style>\n  body, table, h2, h3, p, ul, li {\n    font-family: Aptos, Arial, sans-serif;\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<br><br>\n\n<h2>Tour de France 2025: Stage 7 Recap<\/h2>\n<br>\n<h3><b>Pogacar<\/b> Dominates M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne to Reclaim Yellow Jersey<\/h3>\n<br>\n\n<p>Stage 7 of the 2025 Tour de France, a 197-kilometer hilly stage from Saint-Malo to M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne Guerl\u00e9dan, delivered a dramatic showdown on the iconic M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne climb, known as the &#8220;Alpe d\u2019Huez of Brittany&#8221; for its steep gradient.<\/p>\n<br>\n\n<p>The stage featured relatively rolling terrain until the final circuit, which included two ascents of the punishing M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne (2 km at 6.9%), with the finish line at the summit of the second climb. A breakaway formed early, but UAE Team Emirates-XRG controlled the pace, ensuring the stage would be decided by the general classification (GC) contenders. A high-speed crash with 6.5 kilometers to go disrupted the peloton, taking down key riders like <b>Jo\u00e3o Almeida<\/b> (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), <b>Santiago Buitrago<\/b> (Bahrain Victorious), and <b>Jack Haig<\/b> (Bahrain Victorious), who was forced to abandon.<\/p>\n<br>\n\n<p><b>Tadej Pogacar<\/b> (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) showcased his dominance, powering to victory with a blistering sprint on the final ascent of M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne, reclaiming the yellow jersey. He outpaced <b>Jonas Vingegaard<\/b> (Visma-Lease a Bike), who finished second, and British rider <b>Oscar Onley<\/b> (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL), who took third. <b>Remco Evenepoel<\/b> (Soudal Quick-Step) stayed in contention, finishing in the reduced lead group, while <b>Mathieu van der Poel<\/b> (Alpecin-Deceuninck) struggled and lost the yellow jersey. <b>Pogacar<\/b> dedicated his victory to his injured teammate Jo\u00e3o Almeida.<\/p>\n<br>\n\n<p>In the general classification, <b>Tadej Poga?ar<\/b> now leads, with <b>Jonas Vingegaard<\/b> in second (+1:17), <b>Remco Evenepoel<\/b> in third (+1:30), and <b>Oscar Onley<\/b> moving up to seventh. <b>Jonathan Milan<\/b> (Lidl-Trek) retained the green jersey, <b>Tadej Pogacar<\/b> held onto the polka-dot jersey, and <b>K\u00e9vin Vauquelin<\/b> (Ark\u00e9a-B&#038;B Hotels) kept the white jersey. The combativity award went to <b>Iv\u00e1n Garc\u00eda Cortina<\/b> (Movistar) for his efforts in the breakaway.<\/p>\n<br>\n\n<p>Stage 8, a 171.4-kilometer flat stage from Saint-M\u00e9en-le-Grand to Laval Espace Mayenne, offers a chance for sprinters, but the GC battle intensifies as <b>Pogacar<\/b> strengthens his grip on the race ahead of the first rest day.<\/p>\n<br>\n\n<h3>Jersey and Award Definitions<\/h3>\n<br>\n<ul>\n  <li><b>Yellow Jersey (Maillot Jaune)<\/b>: Worn by the rider with the lowest overall time in the general classification (GC), the race leader and frontrunner for the Tour\u2019s overall victory.<\/li>\n  <li><b>Green Jersey (Maillot Vert)<\/b>: Awarded to the points classification leader, earned through stage finishes and intermediate sprints, typically favoring sprinters.<\/li>\n  <li><b>Polka Dot Jersey (Maillot \u00e0 Pois)<\/b>: Given to the mountains classification leader, based on points from categorized climbs, recognizing the best climber.<\/li>\n  <li><b>White Jersey (Maillot Blanc)<\/b>: Worn by the best young rider (under 26) with the lowest GC time, highlighting emerging talent.<\/li>\n  <li><b>Combativity Award<\/b>: Awarded daily to the rider showing the most aggressive or spirited effort, such as breakaways or attacks, as voted by a jury. Not typically awarded in time trials.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">First part of the prose novel Lancelot du Lac, French, 14th century, ? by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charlylopezph?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@charlylopezph<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3LYrdsqi40\">pic.twitter.com\/3LYrdsqi40<\/a><\/p>&mdash; ArtButMakeItSports (@ArtButSports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ArtButSports\/status\/1943706313999200471?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 11, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Photo of the day<\/strong>: Yellow-jersey wearing Mathieu van der Poel reaching out to congratulate Irishman Ben Healy on his first ever Tour de France stage win at Stage 6.  Shades of the medieval painting shown above.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The post juxtaposes a modern Tour de France handshake between cyclists Mathieu van der Poel and another rider with a 14th-century French manuscript illustration of knights from &#8220;Lancelot du Lac,&#8221; highlighting a historical parallel of chivalric greetings, a connection supported by art historians noting medieval gestures as precursors to contemporary sportsmanship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"LIVE: Tour de France 2025 Stage 8\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1DEdvbj9Ing?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our continuing coverage of the other big event going on this month. Stage Date Start > Finish Type Distance (km) Distance (mi) Winner 7 Fri 07\/11 Saint-Malo > M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne Guerl\u00e9dan Hilly 197 122 Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) Note on Pronunciation: Tadej Pogacar\u2019s name is pronounced TAH-day POH-gah-char (the \u201c?\u201d sounds like \u201cch\u201d in \u201cchurch\u201d). [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1622,1623],"class_list":{"0":"post-45775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured","7":"tag-tdf","8":"tag-tdf2025","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45775"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45828,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45775\/revisions\/45828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}