Stage 7 | Fougères – Chartres | Tour de France 2018

Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau recap a quiet day on the Tour de France – a long 231-kilometre trek across the countryside that barely sparked into life until the final five kilometres.

With the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix looming we ask whether such days are an inevitable consequence of the stress of the opening days of the Tour and the reduction in team size from nine to eight riders. We also talk to Hilaire Van der Schueren, sports director of Wanty-Groupe Gobert, the wild card team who at least put two riders up the road.

Dylan Groenewegen of Team LottoNL-Jumbo won the stage – making it his second Tour stage victory after his triumph on the Champs-Elysées last year. We speak to his team-mates about how they pulled it off.

And we look back at yesterday’s late drama which cost Tom Dumoulin and Romain Bardet time after the two overall contenders collided. We speak to Dumoulin’s sports director Luke Roberts about the chaos and misunderstandings at the end of the stage to Mûr de Bretagne.

The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science In Sport