As predicted, Van Dothan blew away the Tour de France on stage 7, with Beulah Hansgrohe and Ineos Grenadier crushing the peloton and several contenders losing significant time in the overall classification.

A combination of aggressive racing, punctures, mechanical problems, and crashes took their heaviest toll on Tadey Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), who finished third overall.

The Slovenian Pogacar finished in the second group, 1:21 behind race leader Adam Yates (Mitchelton Scott). Pogacar was 1:28 behind Yellow, while Mikel Landa finished in the same group as Pogacar and was another 6 seconds behind on GC heading into the Pyrenees. Pogacar said at the finish, "I knew the final section was going to be tough, so I tried to go to the front, but someone crashed in front of me, and when the bunch split up I dropped back."

"I tried to close the gap but the speed was really picking up. The team did everything they could to bring me back and did their best to minimize the loss. It was only a minute or so, which isn't ideal, but I'm not worried. But I'm not worried. 7]

On the 168-km route from Milhaud to Lavolle, Beulah Hansgrohe attacked on the first climb and broke up the group. She drove a number of sprinters to the back, including green jersey holder Sam Bennett and stage winners Caleb Yuan (Lotto-Soudal) and Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) All of the GC contenders were split on this stage, but the stage Several contenders came to grief in the second half: Marc Soler (Movistar) crashed and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) suffered a puncture, forcing him to chase with 54km to go. Pogacar also suffered a puncture, but was able to catch up again.

However, with a strong tailwind blowing with 25km to go, Ineos pulled ahead and was joined by Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren), Morema and teammate Richie Porte, Pogacar, Dan Martin (Israel Startup Nation), Esteban Chaves ( Mitchelton-Scott) were caught, forcing the lead group to split again.

Richard Kalapas (Ineos) suffered mechanical problems, lost contact with the lead group, and finished in the pogacar group.

Bora-Hansgrohe coach Enrico Poitschke was pleased that Peter Sagan suffered mechanical problems in the sprint and lost the stage win, but was able to take the green jersey back from Sam Bennett (Detunink-Quickstep). Team GC leader Emmanuel Buchmann was in the lead group and is now 22 seconds behind Yates in 12th place.

"I'm happy with the cross/cross tailwind and the hard start to the stage," Poitschke said. 'I like the hard racing and the attacks early on. I was going to go as hard as I could, especially on the second climb, which had a crosswind and was three kilometers long. The whole team did a great job right to the end. I wanted to win the stage, but with Emmanuel and Peter in the first group, I was fine. Peter was unlucky with a technical problem. But everyone did a great job. It was a good day for the team."

Beulah Hansgrohe single-handedly gave the other sprinters an advantage, but she enlisted the help of Ineos to pull away from the other GC riders.

"It was hard to work so long alone with only a little help from the other teams. It took a lot of energy, sure, but it wasn't just our problem. A lot of players had problems in the crosswind, we dropped some guys in the GC."