When I previewed this stage yesterday I said it would be boring. I am a stupid, stupid man. The peloton split apart at several points of the course, sending stage and general classification favorites backwards down the road. The result was the most end-to-end nailbiting Tour stage thus far.

Ineos selected the final group of about 40 riders that would contest the stage by taking over the front of the peloton with 35 kilometers to go and ramping up the pace. In the closing 500 meters, and with many of the pure sprinters left behind, Wout van Aert attacked from a buried position to outmuscle veteran hardmen Edvald Boasson Hagen and Bryan Coquard and win his second stage of this year's Tour.

Peter Sagan was involved in the sprint as well, but dropped his chain ahead of the line after colliding with another rider. In a separate incident, Julian Alaphilippe, now in the midst of a full-blown revenge mission, threw up an arm in protest after jostling elbows with Cristophe Laporte. It was exactly the finish that a chaotic day deserved.

From Kilometer Zero, Bora-Hansgrohe drove the peloton at a blistering pace, hitting 88 km/h at one point, in service of Sagan, who entered the day behind Sam Bennett in the green jersey competition. Then the crosswinds struck, creating splits that pushed the premiere sprinters off the back, including Bennett. His group was second on the road at one minute, 20 seconds back just 40 kilometers into the stage. Even farther behind, a group containing Stage 3 winner Caleb Ewan -- as well as other pure sprinters like Andre Greipel and Giacomo Nizzolo -- was three minutes down.

Bora's gambit succeeded ... mostly. Sagan was nipped at the line of the intermediate sprint by Matteo Trentin, so he took 17 points towards the green jersey instead of the full 20. But he became the virtual points classification leader with the result, and will wear the green jersey on Stage 8.

Bora could have slowed down at that point, deciding they'd rather conserve energy for what could have been a classic bunch sprint finish. Instead, they kept pushing, opening a 2:30 gap on the Bennett group and a 5:45 (!) gap on the Ewan group with 103k to go. The stragglers' last strands of hope were gone after the Category 3 climb up the Col de Peyronnenc. The leaders made swift work of the ascent, and with 84k to go the gap opened up even further: 4:26 to the green jersey group and 7:59 (!!) to Ewan and company.

With 95 kilometers to go, Thomas de Gendt finally went solo at this year's Tour de France. The Belgian is perhaps the peloton's most famous breakaway artist. According to the Tour, the move was his 28th (!!!) career Tour de France breakaway, which means it's almost more stunning that he waited until Stage 7 to try his luck.

De Gendt opened up a healthy gap of 48 seconds with 58k to go, and briefly the story of the day seemed like it would become De Gendt vs. Sagan for the stage win. With 62 kilometers to go, Bennett's green jersey group was five minutes back, and the Tour broadcast stopped updating us about Ewan's group entirely, reportedly more than nine minutes back at that point in the race.

The peloton found another gear, however, and ate into De Gendt's lead, finally ending his heroic attack at 35k to go.

That's when Ineos unleashed Michael Kwiatkowski. The front group of perhaps 100 riders split into three. The second group on the road included Mikel Landa (13th overall entering the stage), Esteban Chaves (7th) and Tadej Pogacar (3rd). Richie Porte was in the third group, eliminating himself from the yellow jersey competition in the first week, as is tradition.

With 22.5k left, a front group of 40 riders had 54 seconds on a second group of about 45 riders. The green jersey group hit NINE MINUTES back with 18k to go, and the Ewan group was huffing away at 11:18. With 500 meters left in the stage, a hodgepodge of sprinters, climbers and puncheurs broke for the line, and Van Aert was once again the fastest man on the road.

The day's biggest winners was everyone who stayed out of trouble. Jumbo-Visma barely broke a sweat and won the stage. Ineos needled their opponents, kept Egan Bernal safe and got Richard Carapaz back to the bunch after a brief mechanical scare. Nairo Quintana and Thibaut Pinot were on the right side of a bunch split for once. And Mitchelton-Scott deftly defended Adam Yates and the yellow jersey.

The losers are as follows:

• Tadej Pogacar: Now in 16th place at 1:28 back, the 21-year-old's very real yellow jersey hopes are now all but dashed. He could maintain the same gap to the yellow jersey for the rest of the Tour and make the podium, but it's doubtful he'll get the support he needs to challenge Primoz Roglic and Jumbo-Visma. He also lost the white jersey as the Tour's best young rider away to Egan Bernal and Ineos, who will be nearly as impossible to take down.

• Sam Bennett: Until Friday, this year looked like the best chance for someone to beat Peter Sagan heads up for the green jersey since his rein on the points competition began in 2012. Bennett is still within punching distance, but Week 2 is filled with the sort of Classics profiles that Sagan normally devours.

• Peter Sagan: That said, Stage 7 didn't go perfectly for Bora-Hansgrohe. Sagan missed three points on the intermediate sprint, then got mechanical'd out of the running for the stage win. As a result, he doesn't have the runaway lead on the green jersey he normally enjoys at this point in the Tour, nor does he appear to be on his normally dominant form. Sagan is still Sagan, and he has a team that would die for him, but his iron grip over the Tour seems to have slipped ever so slightly.

• Me, the cycling expert: I've been exceedingly wrong about almost every stage of this Tour. Which is to say, the action has been pleasantly unpredictable. But also this is a reminder to you, the reader: IDIPD is not liable for lost wages.

• Everyone, tomorrow: Today was set up to be an restful amble in preparation for a decisive Stage 8, which features the first first Hors Categorie climb up the Port de Balès. Instead, crosswinds happened. Tomorrow could be a miserable day in the saddle for everyone (and a delightful day on the couch).

Some very exhausted fun

Not much ephemera today. Most of the fun was out on the road. THAT SAID:

The Viaduc de Millau was ever majestic.

ECHELONS

Thomas de Gendt enacting how I currently feel.

"F** cycling."

This child made my heart soar.

The standings

STAGE 7

1. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) -- 4hr 32min 03sec
2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NTT) -- "
3. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- "
4. Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) -- "
5. Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) -- "
6. Clement Venturini (AG2R La Mondiale) -- "
7. Hugo Hofstetter (Israel Start-Up Nation) -- “
8. Egan Bernal (Ineos) -- “
9. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) -- “
10. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) -- “

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) — 30hr 36min 00sec
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) — +3sec
3. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) — +9sec
4. Egan Bernal (Ineos) — +13sec
5. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) — “
6. Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) — “
7. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) — “
8. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) – “
9. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) -- "
10. Rigoberto Uran (Education First) -- "

GREEN JERSEY

1. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) — 138 points
2. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — 129
3. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) -- 106
4. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- 105
5. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) — 93

POLKA DOT JERSEY

1. Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) — 25 points
2. Michael Gogl (NTT) — 12
3. Nicolas Roche (Sunweb) – 11
4. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) – 10
5. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) – "

Stage 8 preview -- 141km from Cazères-sur-Garonne to Loudenvielle

Stage 8 will begin at 1:35 p.m. local, 7:35 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 8 a.m. on NBC. (Here’s NBC’s complete broadcast schedule).

Don’t get that channel? You’ll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.

If you can’t watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.

You should probably know by now not to trust any prediction I make in this section. I've taken Wout van Aert to win most of these stages (a safe bet! But you know, a blind squirrel finds a nut twice a day or whatever), and I thought Friday would be dull (see above). The riders themselves haven't exactly cooperated, either, one day ambling at a mild pace, the next sowing chaos all over the road.

So I'll stop pretending to know how events will unfold. But Stage 8 should be a blast. We're in the Pyrenees!

Of course, whether the racing is any fun is up to the riders. They could in theory stay bunched on the climbs after battling crosswinds all day on Friday. But if anyone is brave enough to launch an attack on the Port de Balès, they could get away and do serious damage to their rivals. At a relatively short 141 kilometers, Jumbo-Visma and/or Ineos will have a tough time controlling the front of the race. Tour director Christian Prudhomme and course designer Thierry Gouvenou clearly had attacks in mind when they created this profile, but like an entitled housecat, the peloton has a mind of its own.

Even if the racing is neutralized, however, we should still see general classification contenders crack. The three climbs are hard. Port de Balès is 11.7 kilometers at 7.7 percent average gradients, with a long ramp of more than 10 percent two-thirds towards the summit. The Col de Peyresourde is a relatively steadier 7.8 percent average gradient for 9.7 kilometers ahead of what could be a nervous descent for a solo leader on wobbly legs into Loudenvielle.

Expect all the GC favorites to be in play for the stage win: Primoz Roglic, Thibaut Pinot, Egan Bernal, Nairo Quintana ... and I'll never not mention Julian Alaphilippe. The last 40 kilometers could be classic blockbuster racing. Get yourself some black pork and Tarbes beans and either enjoy the show or curse these fickle athletes.