Tour de France Stage 7 Preview: 11/2 Philipsen repeat and 33/1 Pedersen pick for Bordeaux

Thursday saw yet another virtuoso display from Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France, but Friday’s Stage 7 allows the race leader to sit back and leave it to the sprint kings on the 175.1km route from Hagetmau to Bordeaux (live from 12pm  BST on TNT Sports 1, highlights from 7pm on Channel 5).

 Olav Kooij registered the win on the first flat stage to Pau on Wednesday, but can he claim another? My Tour de France Stage 7 predictions follow below.

Tour de France Betting Odds

As he was on Wednesday, Tim Merlier is the favourite to come home first in the sprint at Bordeaux. He’s 5/4, with Kooij just behind him at 13/8.

Alpecin-Premier Tech’s Jasper Philipsen is 11/2, with Biniam Girmay of NSN Cycling and XDS Astana’s Max Kanter at 8/1.

There are a number of Head to Heads available to bet on, while one of the Stage 7 Specials offers 2/1 about both Merlier and Philipsen ending in the top three.

Cycling Odds

Friday’s stage will remind Mark Cavendish fans of a huge near-miss on the same stretch of road in 2023.

Aiming for a record 35th Tour stage win, the Manx Missile came in just behind Philipsen after a gear failure. Less than 24 hours later he was out of that year’s race with a broken collarbone and it took a return to the event in ’24 for Sir Mark to record another victory and reach that storied number.

It ought to be a similar fight to the line in this stage, with just a single Cat 4 climb at the Cote de Beguey to deal with 38km from home. And even that lump is only 1.4km long at a 4.7% average gradient.

Jasper Philipsen @ 11/2

Having been left with too much to do after a crash in the closing stages on Wednesday, Philipsen didn’t quite come through for me, finishing fifth.

But I’m happy to go with him again on Friday, with the experience of having negotiated these roads to great effect just three years ago hopefully being a big factor.

The Alpecin rider has that other major benefit of having a former world champion in Mathieu van der Poel as his leadout man, and I think Jasper gets there just ahead of Merlier.

Mads Pedersen EW @ 33/1

For my each-way bet I was thinking of going bold and tipping Soren Waerenskjold, who is a great one-day rider and loves to get involved at the pointy end of sprint stages.

But the current green jersey leader, Mads Pedersen, is my pick for a top-three finish.

He’s not among the best three finishers in the field, with Merlier, Philipsen, Kooij and Girmay all staking a claim ahead of him. What he does have, though, is the intelligence to find the right part of the road at the right time more often than many of his opponents.

And that’s where the Dane can outdo others in his perennial bid for green jerseys. At 33/1, he looks a big price.