Saint-Meen-le-Grand [France], July 12 (ANI): Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) swooped back into the yellow jersey with a second stage win in this year's Tour de France after beating arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the iconic finish climb at Mur-de-Bretagne in Stage 7. Pogacar had more punch than any of his opponents in a tense seven-up sprint as Britain's Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) impressed with a solid third place ahead of Austria's Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and American Matteo Jorgenson (Visma).

The double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) was the only of the remaining general classification favourites who could match Pogacar and Vingegaard on the tough double-digit ramp of the final climb in Brittany, a release said. But as the gradient eased towards the home straight, and more riders were able to chase back on, the Belgian could only take sixth place in the sprint finish.

With the overnight race leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) - the last rider to win at Mur-de-Bretagne in 2021 - finishing over a minute back, Pogacar soared back into the race lead. The Slovenian now holds a 54-second advantage over Stage 5 winner Evenepoel in the standings, with Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) third at 1:11.

Vingegaard - who showed much promise in matching Pogacar's relentless uphill accelerations - is fourth at 1:17, while Dutchman Van der Poel slipped to fifth after clearly suffering off the back of his starring role in Thursday's breakaway.

Beyond the indefatigable world champion, Onley was the big winner of the day, the young Scottish climber rising four places to seventh in the general classification (GC) at the expense of Pogacar's UAE team-mate Joao Almeida, who suffered a terrible crash on the fast descent leading up to the finale.

Portuguese climber Almeida's back wheel appeared to explode, causing him and around a dozen riders to hit the deck at high speed near the back of the yellow jersey group with around six kilometres remaining of the 197km stage through Brittany.

Stage 6 winner Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was also involved in the crash, the Irishman quickly returning to the saddle but dropping out of the top 10. Australia's Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) was forced to withdraw while his Colombian team-mate Santiago Buitrago, like Almeida, plummeted down the standings after conceding over 13 minutes.

An 18th career win on the Tour de France also saw Pogacar move back into the lead in the green jersey standings, while his Belgian team-mate Tim Wellens retained the polka dot jersey ahead of back-to-back stages that should suit the sprinters over the weekend.

'I'm super happy with the win,' 28-year-old Pogacar said. 'Today we did almost perfect. It was unfortunate that Joao [Almeida] crashed and I hope he's okay. If he's okay, then it's a perfect day, but if he's not okay, then this victory is for him. Right now, I just wish he's okay.'

Having finished behind Van der Poel in the Tour's last visit to Mur-de-Bretagne four years previously, Pogacar admitted that he was extra motivated to go one better on Friday.

'Me and Mathieu [Van der Poel] both know this finish very well. We both have nice memories from here and we both wanted more or less the same - to win on this iconic climb,' he said. 'But I think that he may be left a bit too much on the road yesterday, so we couldn't have this rematch [from 2021] but for me the day went super good - just like we planned, and the win is amazing.'

Operating alongside Van der Poel's Alpecin-Deceuninck, Pogacar's UAE squad kept a tight lid on the day's breakaway of five riders - never allowing the advantage to grow above two minutes, the release said.

The day's break took well over an hour to form with a fast and furious early average speed of over 54km/h, which meant even an engine as strong as Wout van Aert's (Visma) struggled to make any inroads.

Belgium's Van Aert rode in an early move with Swiss champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) but the duo never established a lead of over 20 seconds as the counter-attacks rained down behind.

If Van Aert and his Visma team-mate Victor Campenaerts were particularly busy in the opening hour, then so too were Ineos Grenadiers, who, when the day's move finally went away, had their Welsh veteran Geraint Thomas right in the thick of things.

Thomas, the 2018 champion, found himself in a five-man break alongside French duo Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) and Ewen Costiou (Arkea-B&B Hotels), the Austrian Marco Haller (Tudor Pro Cycling), and Spain's Ivan Garcia (Movistar).

But with UAE's rangy German rouleur Nils Politt on pacing duties behind, the breakaway never looked like they stood a chance as the mercury pushed over 30 degrees and the race sped past the beautiful Breton coastline.

Haller, suffering cramps, was the first to throw in the towel before Thomas then cracked on the first of two ascents up the finish climb - on the opening 15% gradient where local rider Costiou took his chances with 15km remaining.

With his fellow escapees all swept up, Costiou was able to cross the line to the sound of the bell with a 20-second advantage, with Wellens adding another point to his polka dot tally behind when what remained of the peloton passed through.

The lone leader was caught when the road edged uphill on an unclassified climb before the fast descent towards the foot of the final climb. And it was here where Almeida's apparent rear blow-out wreaked havoc on the back of the main field as scores of riders hit the deck at top speed.

Along with Almeida, Bahrain duo Haig and Buitrago, and EF Education's Healy, Spain's Enric Mas (Movistar) also went down hard, as well as Ireland's Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla), France's Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and a handful of others.

Despite losing Almeida, UAE took back control through Marc Soler, birthday boy Pavel Sivakov and Wellens, before Ecuador's Jhonatan Narvaez was able to return alongside Pogacar once a select group of nine riders formed after the double-digit pitch.

Narvaez led things out for Pogacar, whose pulsating attack had Evenepoel instantly shaking his head while the man in rainbow bands went clear with Vingegaard for yet another one-two finish between the so-called Big Two.

'We did an amazing job today - all the team-mates were perfect,' Pogacar said. 'It was a hot day and we spent a lot of our energy cooling down our bodies. It was also a super fast and a hard day. But we had a plan and we stuck to it.

'The team led me out to the bottom of the climb. Normally Joao [Almeida] should be there but he crashed and Johnny [Narvaez] came through for the last kilometre and he did a super job to keep it under control until the last sprint. Back in yellow - and now let's hope for two easy days.'

Unusually for the Tour, Pogacar should get just that this weekend with successive days that look - on paper - destined to end in bunch sprints. With Pogacar reigning supreme in yellow and green, it will be a chance for the sprinters to build up a bit of a buffer between them and the Slovenian ahead of the high mountains.

Italy's Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Eritrea's Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) are separated by just 11 points in second and third in the points classification, both with a chance to move into outright green before Monday's hilly Bastille Day test in the Massif Central.(ANI)