Tour de France Stage 7 Preview: Winds Could Wreak Havoc for the Sprinters

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Jim Cotton
Published July 9, 2026 10:57AM

Hagetmau – Bordeaux: 175.1km / 850m+

Look at it. It’s long, and it’s flat. Stage 7 of the Tour de France into Bordeaux is a guaranteed bunch sprint, and there’s not much more to say.

One potential wrinkle? Any impact of the weather.

While the area is typically calm and still, any winds blowing in from the nearby Atlantic coast could cause carnage on a course that speeds almost directly north, all day.

In the likely event of a mass sprint in Bordeaux, the pressure will be on any sprint trains that messed up their first opportunity on stage 5 into Pau. Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen will certainly be looking for a do-over. But do they have what it takes to best stage 5 winner Olav Kooij?

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Any team who gets it wrong again on stage 7 will see their next chance just 24 hours later in another sprint stage on day 8 into Bergerac.

  • Start: 7:15 a.m. ET
  • Est. Finish: 11:13 a.m. ET
Jim Cotton
Published July 9, 2026 10:57AM

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