Romain Bardet climbed to eighth atop the brutally steep final climb of La Super Planche des Belles Filles today on stage 7 of the Tour de France. Finishing in a select group atop the climb and gravel road to finish, Bardet dug deep right to the finish just 21 seconds down on the stage winner.

The day got underway with another tough fight for the breakaway, with many other teams looking to get up the road. This resulted in no real group going clear for over 50 kilometres before 12 riders eventually established a gap.

Behind this group the team of race leader Pogacar set a fierce tempo on the front of the bunch to keep the break in check and within reach. On the climbs before the final ascent the lead group thinned down to just a handful of riders, eventually ending up with just one rider at the front of the race on La Super Planche des Belles Filles.

Behind, the pace was on as the gradient continued to rise and the gap was dropping as the metres passed. Having been positioned by his teammates at the bottom of the climb, Bardet rode a strong final climb to make a small selection of just eight riders at the front of the race, eventually finishing seventh on the stage.

Bardet said after the finish: “Today was a pretty good day, the guys put me in a good position at the bottom of the last climb then I just tried to follow the best as much as I can. I’m pretty happy with the day, we worked well through out the stage and will look to carry on like this.”

Matt Winston commented on the stage after the finish, “The guys rode a good stage to protect Romain and keep him out of trouble. We felt the day result would come from the peloton so we focused on Romain going for a result from that position. I think we rode a good final climb but just came up a bit short of the end. Overall, we are making very solid progress here this week.”