Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) finally ended his drought at the Tour de France when he came out on top in the big bunch sprint that decided stage 7 of the French race. Timing his sprint perfectly, he managed to pass André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) on the inside to take his first stage victory since 2013 while Chris Froome (Sky) took over the yellow jersey from Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) who didn’t take the start.

Over the last few days, the pressure has been building on Mark Cavendish’s shoulders. After he was firmly beaten by Marcel Kittel on several occasions in 2013 and crashed out of last year’s race, he had failed to win a stage in the French race since stage 13 of the 2013 edition of the race. In this year’s edition, he had seen archrival André Greipel beat him in the first two bunch sprints and with only three possible sprint options left, time was running out for the Manxman.

However, he can now head into the mountains with much more confidence after he finally managed to break the drought in what could be the last real bunch sprint before Paris. In a sprint royale in Fougères, he got his revenge as he came out on top in a head-to-head battle with Greipel and Sagan who had beaten him in the first two sprint.

However, it was not the usual Etixx-QuickStep dominance of the finale. Instead of relying on his usual lead-out train, he freewheeled in the finale while Katusha and Lotto Soudal played with the muscles. It was the Russian team that came out on top and delivered Alexander Kristoff perfectly but the Norwegian lacked his usual speed and faded to fifth.

The remnants of the early break was caught with 11km to go at a time when the sprint teams were waiting for the right time to strike, leaving it to the GC teams to lead the peloton. Movistar, Tinkoff-Saxo, Lotto Soudal, BMC and Sky were lined out on the front as they passed the 10km to go banner before Sky took complete control with Nicolas Roche.

BMC’s Danilo Wyss and Lotto Soudal’s Lars Bak moved up next to the British team while Cavendish got a setback when Julien Vermote punctured. The Belgian managed to rejoin the peloton but he never played a role in the finale.

Bak, Ian Stannard (Sky), Gorka izagirre (Movistar) and Michael Schär (BMC) were lined out on the front with 6km to go before the first sprint team took control. Giant-Alpecin hit the front with Georg Preidler and this forced Lotto Soudal and Etixx-QuickStep to react.

Passing the 5km to go mark, Preidler, Michal Kwiatkowski and Bak were lined out on the front but it was Giant that won the battle. Albert Timmer led the entire train for a kilometre while a wide road allowed the sprinters to move up.

Kristijan Koren (Cannondale) briefly passed the Giant riders as Warren Barguil hit the front but they lost the battle when Sebastien Chavanel and Arnaud Demare hit the front for FD. Koen De Kort passed the two Frenchman but he had lost his teammates and instead Marcel Sieberg, Jens Debusschere and Greipel seemed to have timed it well when they hit the front at the flamme rouge.

Debusschere did the lead-out but he was unable to keep Katusha at bay. Marco Haller and Jacopo Guarnieri gave Kristoff the perfect lead-out while Greipel was passed by several riders.

This forced the German to do a long sprint with Sagan on his wheel and those two riders got the jump on Kristoff. Cavendish was quick to react by passing the Norwegian before he could start his sprint and he managed to narrowly edge out Greipel and Sagan who had to settle for second and third respectively.

Chris Froome finished safely in the bunch and so took over the leader’s jersey from Tony Martin who didn’t take the start. With the bonus seconds, Sagan moved into second and now trails the Brit by 11 seconds.

Froome will wear the yellow jersey in tomorrow’s next test for the GC riders. After a predominantly flat ride through Brittany with a single category 4 climb at the midpoint, it is a finale for puncheurs as the stage finishes on the 2km climb of the Mur-de-Bretagne.

One for the sprinters

After yesterday’s stage for puncheurs, the sprinters were expected to be back in the spotlight on stage 7 which brought the riders over 190.5km from Livarot to Fougères. There was a small category 4 climb after just 12.5km of racing but otherwise the course was almost completely flat. However, the stage had a nasty sting in its tail as the finishing straight was slightly uphill with an average gradient of 3-4%.

It was another calm, sunny day when the riders left Livarot to head out on their neutral rode. Unfortunately, there was no rider in the yellow jersey as Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) was a non-starter after he broke his collarbone yesterday. Greg Henderson (Lotto Soudal) was also absent as his rib injuries made it impossible for him to continue.

Contador and Gesink crash

The race got off to a dramatic start as Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) both crashed in the neutral zone but both had rejoined the peloton by the time, the official start was given. As soon as the flag was dropped, Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Anthony Delaplace, Brice Feillu (Bretagne) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) attacked and as the peloton didn’t react, they already had a 50-second advantage after 2.5km of racing,

The gap was 2.10 at the 4.5km mark and it was Teklehaimanot who reached the top of the only climb in first position to consolidate his lead in the mountains competition. In the peloton, Lotto Soudal took control and led the bunch over the top 2.35 behind the escapees.

Etixx-QuickStep and Lotto Soudal take control

Etixx-QuickStep started to work with Lotto Soudal as Michal Golas came to the fore but they still allowed the gap to go out to 3.50 after 30km of racing. However, the two Belgian teams did not leave anything to chance and at the 37.5km mark, they had already brought it down to 2.55. After 44km of racing, it was 2.50.

Thomas De Gendt and Golas did the early work to keep the gap stable at around 2.50 before things heated up as they approached the intermediate sprint. Mate, Feillu and Delaplace sprinted for the points, crossing the line in that order while Durasek and Teklehaimanot were next. In the peloton, Giant-Alpecin gave John Degenkolb a full lead-out and he managed to hold off Sagan and Greipel while Cavendish saved energy and rolled across the line as the fourth sprinter.

Things get more nervous

The gap had come down to 2.05 but as the sprinters waited for the peloton, De Gendt and Golas again came to the fore, it had gone out to 2.30. On a day without any stress, Golas briefly stopped the work and allowed De Gendt to reduce the gap to 2.00 before he got back to work.

With 80km to go, things got a bit more nervous as more of the big teams started to gather their troops near the front and so the gap came down quickly. The gap was now only 1.20 and was only 55 seconds with 75km to go.

Katusha come to the fore

De Gendt and Golas discussed the situation and allowed the gap to go out to 1.20 while Teklehaimanot briefly stopped his work in the front group before his companions persuaded him to contribute again. As more teams gathered near the front, the gap went out to 1.45 witg 60km to go before fthe peloton accelerated again.

It came down to less than a minute as Tiago Machado (Katusha) briefly started to chase for Katusha before he again disappeared. While the big teams lined up their troops next to De Gendt and Golas, the gap hovered around 30 seconds for a very long time.

The attacking starts

With 30km to go, Mate made the first attack from the front group and after Teklehaimanot had dropped back to the peloton, Delaplace made an unsuccessful counterattack. The Bretagne rider tried again but as he failed to get clear, they started to cooperate to keep the gap at 30 seconds.

In the peloton, De Gendt and Golas were nearly swarmed by Sky, Movistar, BMC and Tinkoff-Saxo who rode on the front row. Meanwhile, Geraint Thomas (Sky) had to work hard to rejoin the peloton after a puncture.

Mate and Feillu get clear

With 20km to go, De Gendt and Golas had finished their work and instead Sky, Lotto Soudal, Movistar, BMC and Tinkoff-Saxo were on the front, keeping the gap at 15 seconds. Meanwhile, the attacking started again in the front group where Delaplace was the first to ty before Mate countered.

The Spaniard and Feillu dropped their companions who were brought back and the Cofidis rider desperately tried to drop his companion before they again started to cooperate. They maintained a 10-second advantage for a few kilometres but with 11km to go, it was over and the scene was set for a big bunch sprint.