Tour de France Stage 7 Predictions: Pogacar to turn the screw

Mathieu van der Poel is back in yellow by the barest of margins after Ireland's Ben Healy claimed a stunning solo success in Normandy on Thursday. Stage six was fast and furious from the off with the chances of a first breakaway success of this year's race clear to see following Wednesday's time-trial in Caen.

Healy and Van der Poel were in an eight-strong group who finally escaped the clutches of the peloton and it was the Irishman who was strongest of all as he added a Tour win to his success at the 2023 Giro d'Italia.

Van der Poel couldn't go with the 24-year-old but he was able to claw back the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Tadej Pogacar by a single second after the Slovene led home a group of the main contenders and their teams. Read on for my Tour de France Stage 7 predictions.

The Route

The 112th Tour de France heads from Normandy to Brittany on stage seven as the peloton heads west from the historic port town of Saint-Malo to the Mur-de-Bretagne.

There is little to concern the riders until the final 20km, which will likely be of great relief given how hard Thursday's stage was, but the action will kick off for sure on the first of two ascents of the Mur-de-Bretagne, the site of Van der Poel's first Tour win in 2021.

Tour de France Stage 7 Odds

Tadej Pogacar to win Stage 7 @ 10/11

The Mur-de-Bretagne will bring back special memories for Van der Poel, who won atop the 'Wall of Brittany' four years ago on only his second Grand Tour stage to take the yellow jersey, something his grandfather, three-time Tour runner-up Raymond Poulidor, never managed.

It's a Van der Poel finish if ever there was one and the Dutch master will have looked at the race's return to the Mur as a chance to recreate history. But he was so active on such a punishing day yesterday that there is a chance that it has taken the edge off him.

Second to MVDP in Brittany four years ago was a certain Pogacar, who may well be back in yellow come Friday evening.

Pogacar already has the Tour at his mercy such is his lead over his main rivals in the general classification, and his insatiable appetite for victories is hard to ignore.

With two sprinters' days to come over the weekend it is hard to see Pogacar passing up another opportunity to strengthen his grip on the race, and a 19th Tour stage win of his career could follow on Friday.

Oscar Onley each-way @ 28/1

Scottish rider Oscar Onley is having a Tour de France to remember and the Briton may be in with a puncher's chance of at least a top-three finish on Friday.

Onley was sixth behind Van der Poel on stage two and then fourth as Pogacar crossed the line two days later in Rouen, and he has clearly brought the form he showed at last month's Tour de Suisse with him to France.

The 22-year-old won one stage and finished in the top three of four others of that eight-day race as he finished third overall and could figure at the finish once more on the Mur-de-Bretagne.

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