Tour de France 2023 stage 7 preview: Route map and profile of 145km from Mont de Marsan to Bordeaux
The 2023 Tour de France erupted in the Pyrenees with a slugfest between the major general classification contenders in the mountains.
Tadej Pogacar produced a stunning attack to win stage six on the summit finish at Cauterets and land a psychological blow in his duel with reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard. But Vingegaard had the consolation of taking the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Australia’s Jai Hindley, and leads Pogacar in the general classification by 25 seconds. It is set up to be a classic Tour de France.
There could well be a thrilling and closely fought fight for the overall win, but that can wait: this is a day for those podium hunters to take a well-earned break from the cut and thrust at the front and let the sprinters take the floor. Stage seven is one of very few sprint opportunities left in the race, and that means that while the GC contenders will be recuperating as much as possible, there will be plenty of stress among the sprint teams as they jostle to win the stage.
The 170km route from Mont-de-Marsan offers up an intermediate sprint after 88km – Jasper Philipsen is dominating the points classification and may be tempted to come forward and fight for more points here, unless a breakaway has escaped up the road and swept them all up.
There is a small category four climb before the finish – the Cote de Beguey (1.2km at 4.4%) – but it is not enough to disrupt the sprinters from their task. A breakaway is likely, but we can expect it to be reeled in come the finish to set up a showdown to the line.
Who will win in Bordeaux? Philipsen will be the favourite once more, having established himself as the alpha of the road by winning two sprint stages already, with the help of his supreme leadout man, Mathieu van der Poel.
There are plenty looking to beat him here though, including Fabio Jakobsen, if he can shake off the pain and misery of his crash on stage four. Mark Cavendish is likely to have another go for victory after two top-six finishes as he chases a historic 35th stage win, while Caleb Ewan and Phil Bauhaus have both come close behind Philipsen this week and would love to pip the Belgian here.
Stage 7 route map and profile
Start time
The stage is set to begin at around 12.30pm BST and is expected to finish at around 4pm BST.
Prediction
It is hard to look beyond Jasper Philipsen here but let’s be adventurous – Caleb Ewan looks sharp and ready to win a stage, and this time he can close the deal after losing a photo finish in Nogaro.
