Tour de France 2019 Favourites stage 7: Back to the fast men

The 7th stage may be the longest stage of this year's Tour de France, it certainly isn't the most challenging. It won't be hard to control the race, so the sprint teams should be able to bring their golden boys to the fore in the finale. (Slideshow route/profile)

The Tour de France serves its longest ride on the seventh day. The route runs on undulating roads, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as the riders are traversing the rolling Burgundy region. Near finish town Chalon-sur-Saône the route evens out to provide a perfect opportunity for a fast finishers showdown.

Chalon-sur-Saône saw its last pro-peloton finish in 2017. Not surprisingly, a sprinter took the spoils. Sam Bennett outgunned Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb. None of them is riding the Tour de France.

Given his 2019 credentials, Groenewegen is the sprinter to beat. He won ten races, Ewan nine, Viviani took seven sprints, Kristoff four, while Sagan powered to three wins. Yet, the Dutchman crashed hard on stage 1 and did not sprint pain-free until now.

The first sprint on this year’s Tour de France was marred as he went down inside the last 1.5 kilometres. Surprisingly, his lead-out Teunissen took the reins and outgunned Sagan in a millimetres sprint, while Ewan finished in third.

Viviani powered to his first ever Tour de France stage-win in the second sprint opportunity in Nancy. Kristoff and Ewan rounded out the podium.

The sprint in Chalon-sur-Saône is fairly straightforward, so perfect for the pure sprinters.