Tour de France stage 7: Tim Merlier sprints to victory in Bordeaux 

Tim Merlier extended his incredible run in stage races and the Tour de France, sprinting to victory on stage 7 from Hagetmau to Bordeaux today.

Alpecin took the lead with 2.5km to go, with Mathieu van der Poel leading out Jasper Philipsen, who won in Bordeaux in 2023. But after van der Poel pulled off with 250m to go, there was no stopping Merlier, who came from far back in the bunch to break ahead and win the stage. 

Merlier described the closing moments of the stage as a “mess”, as he tried to keep his eyes on Philipsen. “They boxed me in everywhere,” he said, adding that he lost ground before he eventually gained space to “give the legs a bit of air”. 

This was the Soudal Quick–Step rider's first win of the 2026 Tour de France, his fourth in three Tours, and his eighth Grand Tour stage win. It’s also the 10th stage race in a row where Merlier has won.

Lotto-Intermarche’s Baptiste Veistroffer and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA’s Jakub Otruba were in a two-man breakaway for almost all of the stage, which had only 850m elevation. 

Merlier commented on the work by his team and Alpecin-Premier Tech: “We were the only team riding with Alpecin to take the breakaway back, so I’m happy it wasn’t another team who won.”

It was Veistroffer’s second breakaway of the 2026 Tour de France after a 144km solo attack on stage 5 because, “I wanted to enjoy myself”. His efforts on stage 3 and today mean Veistroffer spent 234km of the Tour de France’s first 1,000km in a breakaway.

The duo took the top two places on the intermediate sprint with 54km to go, with Veistroffer collecting the maximum 25 points and Otruba coming in second. 

The favourites in the points classification sprinted for the remaining points. Pedersen took third place for 16 points and extended his lead in the points classification over NSN Cycling Team’s Biniam Girmay, who took fourth place for 14 points. 

Veistroffer and Otruba fist bumped as they were enveloped by the peloton with 18km to go.

The bunch was arguably going too slow, with Uno-X Mobility’s Jonas Abrahamsen launching his third attack to push the pace with 10km to go. NetCompany-Ineos also came to the front in the hope of Dorian Godon claiming the stage. 

But it was always a day destined for the big names and sprint trains, with Merlier adding another victory to his palmeres, Uno-X’s Søren Wærenskjold coming in second and Girmay finishing third. Max Kanter came fourth and Pedersen rounded out the top five.