2014 Tour de France Stage 7 Report

Stage 7 Épernay - Nancy 234.5km

The breakaway consisted of six riders: Martin Elmiger (IAM), Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp-Endura), Alex Pichot (Europcar), Anthony Delaplace (Bretange), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) and Matthew Busche (Trek Factory Racing). The leaders gained a lead of over 4 minutes, however a Cannondale-led peloton shortened the gap to only one minute at the intermediate sprint. Elmiger took 20 points at the sprint, from the breakaway and Bryan Coquard won the sprint in the peloton beating Renshaw for seventh. Peter Sagan's lead went down from 80pts to 78pts in the Points classification. Dutchmen Danny Van Poppel and Stef Clement had abandoned the Tour today, so Simon Yates had became the youngest rider in the race. With 64 km to go, Nicolas Edet attacked from the break but was caught and encouraged the breakaway to speed up, when it looked like they were caught. Elmiger and Huzarski attacked the other four escapees with 45km to go. The other 4 were caught with 40 km to go. The breakaway was caught with 19 km to go. Thomas Voeckler attacked on the foot of the Cote de Maron but was caught by Orica-GreenEDGE at the front of the peloton, swiftly. Simon Yates took the only point in the KOM competition at the summit. With 16 km to go, there was a crash in the peloton which included Tejay Van Garderen and JJ Rojas, who had to be paced back by his BMC team. Darwin Atapuna had to abandon because of the crash. With 10km to go, Van Garderen was timed at 50 secs behind the peloton. Cyril Gautier attacked on the slopes of the Cote de Blouffers but was caught quickly. Peter Sagan attacked with Van Avermaet of BMC, the latter took the point at the summit of the climb. They were caught with 1300m to go. There was a large crash in the last kilometre. Also, Talansky crashed in the last 100m but seemed ok. The sprint finish was incredibly close between Matteo Trentin and Peter Sagan. Trentin pipped it by a couple of millimetres.

1.	ITATRENTIN Matteo	79	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	05h 18' 39''
2.	SVKSAGAN Peter	51	CANNONDALE	05h 18' 39''	+ 00' 00''
3.	FRAGALLOPIN Tony	134	LOTTO-BELISOL	05h 18' 39''	+ 00' 00''
4.	NEDDUMOULIN Tom	106	TEAM GIANT-SHIMANO	05h 18' 39''	+ 00' 00''
5.	AUSGERRANS Simon	181	ORICA GREENEDGE	05h 18' 39''	+ 00' 00''
6.	ITAOSS Daniel	145	BMC RACING TEAM	05h 18' 39''	+ 00' 00''
7.	FRAGAUTIER Cyril	154	TEAM EUROPCAR	05h 18' 39''	+ 00' 00''
8.	FRACHAVANEL Sylvain	192	IAM CYCLING	05h 18' 39''	+ 00' 00''
9.	BELVANMARCKE Sep	68	BELKIN PRO CYCLING	05h 18' 39''	+ 00' 00''
10.	BELVAN AVERMAET Greg	148	BMC RACING TEAM	05h 18' 39''	+ 00' 00''