Tadej Pogacar’s Tour de France mastery leaves rivals in his wake and asking: ‘What now?’

Tim Merlier powers to win on stage seven in sprint

Pogacar keeps overall advantage over Vingegaard

Tim Merlier of the Soudal-Quick Step team won the seventh stage of the Tour de France in a classic sprinter’s finish on the banks of the Garonne in Bordeaux.

As the Tour headed away from the Pyrenees, through Gascony towards the Atlantic coast, a lull settled over a shell-shocked peloton as it came to terms with the demonstration of domination from Tadej Pogacar in Thursday’s mountain stage to Gavarnie-Gèdre.