Tour De France 2026 Stage 7 Recap And Rider Pay Explained
A flat stage can look boring until you watch 46+ km/h speed, a boxed-in peloton, and a finish where the last 200 meters decide everything. We’re back with a Tour de France 2026 Stage 7 recap from start to Bordeaux, including how the breakaway got managed and why the sprint teams dictated the day.
We dig into Tim Merlier’s win and what it takes to launch at the exact right moment when everyone is on the limit. We also touch the bigger Tour threads that quietly keep building: jersey standings that hold steady, the value of repeated podium threats like Girmay, and why “most combative” can still matter even when the move never gets real daylight.
Then we take a hard turn into a question fans ask all the time: how do Tour de France riders make money? We break down pro cycling salary ranges, the domestique reality, endorsements and image rights, contract performance bonuses, and the surprisingly communal way prize money works. The detail that sticks with us: winnings get pooled and shared not just with teammates, but with the staff who keep the whole machine running.
If you like race analysis plus the behind-the-scenes economics of pro cycling, hit play, then subscribe, share the episode with a Tour fan, and leave a review with your take: should prize money be shared the way it is?
Adam and Michael’s friendship has grown through years of shared miles, challenges, and laughter on the bike. Their passion for cycling has carried them through life’s twists and turns, creating a bond full of stories, jokes, and unforgettable rides. In their podcast, they bring that same spirit to the mic—sharing adventures, trading banter, and welcoming listeners into their cycling community. Whether tackling steep climbs or cruising open roads, their conversations capture the fun, friendship, and freedom that cycling brings. Tune in for stories that celebrate the ride and the camaraderie that makes it unforgettable.
and Remember,
It's a Great Day for a Bike Ride!
https://www.facebook.com/cyclingmenofleisure
https://cyclingmenofleisure.com/
https://www.cyclingmenofleisurepodcast.com
1 SPEAKER_01: All right, a hot day, lightning fast sprints,
another chapter in the battle for yellow.
Stage seven looked straightforward on paper, but
let me tell you, the finish delivered exactly that kind of
drama that the Tour de France is famous for.
Uh, we're gonna break down the winners, who holds the jerseys,
and what it all means heading into stage eight.
I am Michael uh with Cycling Men of Leisure's Leisure Breakaway.
And with me, as always, my good friend Adam.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, let me take this
opportunity to wish my good friend, my best friend from
Central Time Zone, happy birthday.
Thank you, sir.
I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it.
29 today.
Yes, yes, because I was 28 last year.
So if that works out really well.
SPEAKER_00: How was stage seven?
I I uh I've done some homework for a little bit later, but uh,
but I I want to be transparent.
I was unable to pay attention today.
I was actually doing work on a Friday.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
I don't know if I believe that, but that's okay.
Stage seven started in uh Jimu, uh finished in Burdo.
So we're moving into the wine country.
Distance 175.1 kilometers for us Americans, that's 108.8 miles.
Uh flat sprint stage.
Um approximate uh elevation gain was 1,150 meters, which is only
3,770 feet.
We could have handled that, buddy.
I'm quite sure of that.
Uh not at their speeds, but we could have handled that.
The average temperature was around 29 degrees Celsius, which
was 84 degrees Fahrenheit, uh, which for the way it's been
going, that was actually cool um for the other six days before
that.
Uh writers, where are we at on that?
Uh there was a rider who uh did not start.
They withdrew before stage seven.
Uh that was he was on the Sudal Quick Step team, but uh there's
no other abandonments on the ride.
The big winner today, Tim Merlier, Sudal Quick Step.
He powered to victory through uh a thrilling bunch sprint in
Burdeaux.
Uh he, I gotta say, his timing for that acceleration was
perfect over the last uh 200 meters.
I mean, it was incredible.
Uh his average speed was 46.5 kilometers.
That's 28.9 miles per hour.
Um, but I mean he he played the game well today.
He planned it perfectly, he accelerated when he needed to
accelerate, and it was just impressive.
Although there was a breakaway today.
Uh Bastiste Batiste Verstoffer, uh, who was in the breakaway
yesterday, and uh Jakub uh Truba.
There we go.
Uh they got in a breakaway.
The Peloton was saying, uh, no, that's not gonna happen.
Um they never got much freedom in that breakaway.
Uh the sprint teams, uh including Alperson, uh, Uno X,
and Sudal pretty much controlled the final uh outcome of the
race.
Um another big, big thing I will mention is Grimey uh finished
third after another strong sprint.
So he is uh hasn't won anything yet, but he is making some very,
very strong finishes.
And I am gonna predict right now that he probably mid to late
next week.
He'll be looking at he's the guy to be looking at.
Um general classification, yellow jersey.
Uh Toddy's still holding on to that.
Uh the green jersey again goes to uh mods.
The white jersey, Del Toro, and the polka dot jersey is still
with Toddy.
So um nothing's really changed in the jerseys.
So those are all have pretty much stayed the same.
Most combative rider, though, I don't think it's any surprise,
is Batista um in that breakaway.
Uh, he is just getting out there, and even though he's not
really getting anything with that breakaway, um he's still uh
still winning that most combative, which I think is is
well deserved.
So that is Tour de France 2026, stage seven in a condensed
version for you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you, Century 21, for the combative
award.
So uh we learned that.
Um speaking of learning, sir, a couple things.
I like we certainly we learned today that you are 29.
Um okay, maybe you're a little bit more than 29.
But um, you and I got in a little bit of a conversation
last night about money.
And and you know, when we consider like pro football, uh
it's become very the norm to hear the contract of a
quarterback.
It's uh or a or a high-level uh linebacker or you know, somebody
uh or even believe it or not, even the kicker.
Sometimes you hear even you know their their contract, like Jake
Moody, who came out of uh University of Michigan.
Now, uh, if anyone is a Jake Moody fan, you know that he went
to San Francisco and and the bed.
But um uh when he was here all four years at University of
Michigan, he never missed a punt.
So um people pay attention to that.
My point is when you also know like Otani for his contract.
Have you ever wondered how a tour writer makes their money?
Have you ever have you ever considered that?
Um yes.
SPEAKER_01: I have considered that.
I don't although I don't really know if a lot of people
understand that because uh it's not all about they all have
contracts with their particular teams, but it's not just all
about the contracts as I understand it.
And I'm assuming you're gonna break some some information down
for us.
SPEAKER_00: I am I have four pages.
Now now don't panic, I'm not gonna give you four pages, but
um when I got home today, knowing that you were running
some errands before we could give our leisure breakaway, I
did not use Chat GPT or Claude like I normally do.
I went old school, this little thing called Google.
It's a it's a it's a it's a you know it's a searching page, you
know.
SPEAKER_01: I I was there when it uh came into existence,
absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: The original AI, right?
But um so I actually went and did some did some research
because I would consider myself not whatever under novice is.
I mean like below that, like like walk into a room, I don't
know what the heck I'm talking about.
So I didn't know like if if they made money because they made the
tour, because they went stages or anything.
So let me try to break this down.
Let me try to keep this nice and clean and concise.
So the number one way that a writer um gets their money is
being on the team salary, and so uh the salary uh that is given
to them is a fixed cost, and this is before they even do
anything, before they pedal a bicycle or anything.
And and this can range, and there's a very large range on
this.
We're talking 44,000 euros, or what is the equivalent today of
50,280 to eight million euros a year, which is the equivalent of
about 9.1 million American dollars currently.
The vast majority of the pros uh get their contract paid in the
team sponsors, uh, such as as you've mentioned many times, uh
up into stage seven, the UAE, uh Visa Lease, is that how you say
that?
V Visma lease, a bike.
Uh Vizma bike, yeah.
And and I thought what I needed to do was to give you some
variations of the riders.
And so I wanted to give you like a spread out.
Like um Toddy guys is is eight million.
He's he's right in there.
Um is it Evan Pool?
Is that how you pronounce that?
Evan Pool, yeah.
Okay, he's 6.6 million euros.
Um, and then Vendegaard, 5 million, Vanderpool around 4
million.
Then there's a middle of the pack, which was um about 538,000
euros, uh, or was equivalent to about 650,000 American dollars.
And then the bottom of the floor is the 44,150 uh Euros, either
employed or self-employed.
Um, and um the wage gap inside one team bus is literally the
leader could have a hundred times uh the dominant uh uh how
do you pronounce that?
Dominique or Domestique.
Domestique.
So the point is that you could be on the team bus.
One guy could be sitting in front of you and make a hundred
times more than you do.
SPEAKER_01: So that's really not much different than regular
life.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is true.
SPEAKER_01: You got this little little microcosm and a bus,
you're all on the same team.
Um yeah, I mean, and I can I can believe that.
I mean, you've got the the all-stars, you know, the toddy's
and and those type of people out there.
Uh, and then you've just got, like you said, the domestiques,
and those that's just the fancy French word for the guys who are
working for the the captain.
I mean, those are the guys that you see going back to the team
cars, loading up with five or six bottles.
Uh maybe they grab an extra uh muse uh with food and that type
of stuff for somebody.
They're the they're the ones that are their job is to ensure
that their team captain wins the day, uh, ultimately wins the
tour.
Um, so they're the team doesn't really count on them winning.
Now, sometimes they do because they get in a breakaway or
whatever, but um, yeah, they're just they're they're the ones
probably working the hardest because they have to go to the
back and then they have to crank it all the way back up towards
the front to drop off this stuff.
But, you know, generally they're young writers.
Uh, and generally, you know, these are guys that are uh, I
mean, they're on the team, so there's a chance that they could
be up and coming, and you know, five years, six years down the
road, they could be the one with the uh the big paycheck sitting
at the front of the bus, and these guys are bringing them
water bottles.
SPEAKER_00: So another way that the writers make money is
personal endorsements and image rights.
Um, and this can also be a very, very wide range from watches to
sunglasses to nutrition's to even cars.
Uh, I was surprised to see that um some of the some of the
writers uh their sponsorship includes free cars.
What a what a rough life, huh?
SPEAKER_01: Um they're always on their bike, but yeah, they got
one.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
That's right.
Uh stars negotiate image rights into their contracts and
personality sales.
Um tour winner endorsements can approach and exceed the team
salary.
So I mean, literally one endorsement could be the entire
team salary.
And then uh for the uh might be free sunglasses for the team, uh
growing angle riders with big social followings.
And so um uh there's also contract performance bonuses uh
written in the team contracts.
Um as you mentioned, some of those guys who usually ride
behind who who come back up and power up.
Uh part of the contract is if they actually win a stage or
whatever, uh there's there's you know each time they do have a
chance of winning some money.
Um and then there's also the post-tour appearances where they
you know come to bike shops and get paid just to come up.
Um but I wanted to mention and get to prize money.
And uh, for a guy like myself who's never been into the tour,
I I wasn't sure, but the yellow jersey, uh yeah, that's not a
bad day in the saddle.
That's 500,000 euros for the final yellow jersey.
The final yellow, the final yellow.
SPEAKER_01: So that's at the very end, 500,000 euros.
SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
The second and third overall is 200,000 euros and 100,000 euros.
If they win a stage, 11,000 euros, and second is 550,000
euros.
No, five, yeah, 5,500 euros, forgive me.
Third is 2,800 euros, a green or a polka dotted final is 25,000
euros, a white jersey final is 20,000 euros.
Team classification win is five or 50,000 for the top five
teams.
They have to share the 120,000 euros.
The super combativity ward that we've been speaking about,
thanks to Century 21, 20,000 euros.
Uh a day in yellow is 500 euros a day.
Day in other jerseys could be 300 euros a day.
The twist that makes this a great segment tradition, writers
don't keep it.
All prize money is pooled and split among the teammates and
staff, which I thought was extremely interesting.
For from for, and maybe you knew that, but I was surprised that
they pool everything and split.
That's part of most team contracts.
SPEAKER_01: And not only do they split it, you said something
very important, they split it amongst the team and the staff.
So we're talking that that prize money also gets split with the
mechanics, the masseuse, the cooks, the chefs, all the people
that are traveling with them that are on the staff, the
drivers of the team cars, all get to participate uh in that
winning amount.
So they all, everybody, you know, when those mechanics get
out, uh, you see them pushing and all this kind of stuff.
It's because, yeah, they've got a financial stake in their
person or one of their teammates winning.
So it's very uh very cool.
SPEAKER_00: Um I also was looking at a comparison, and I
this one I must be 100% truthful.
I did go back to AI and I I asked uh Claude, give me a
comparison.
So the total tour prize pot, which is 2.3 million euros, um
uh, which is really weird because the Wimbledon pot is 20
times larger.
In comparison, when you think about a tour de France versus
something like Wimbledon, or um I thought that was just
absolutely amazing that when you look at the comparison, it's
it's nowhere near other sports.
Um it seems to me it'd be a lot harder to ride your bike
thousands of miles through the mountains of France.
SPEAKER_01: You would think, but tennis is a lot more popular
sport.
I mean, it's look here in the United States, six riders in the
tour from the United States.
I mean, we're massive.
Um, cycling is just not that big a deal here in the U.S.
Uh and so there's a huge, huge group of people who would
sponsor who aren't going to really sponsor if they're trying
to hit the United States because people, a lot of people here, uh
vast majority of people really aren't interested.
But tennis, that's a big draw, and and so it kind of makes
sense.
The one point I did want to also point out is you're giving us
all of this in euro, euros, which I find very funny because
if I'm on the tour and I have a commissar flag me or or give me
uh you know some penalty for doing something wrong, they're
gonna penalize me in Swiss francs.
But the prize money I win is in Euros.
So I just think that's interesting that your penalty is
in the Swiss franc, but your payout is in the euro.
SPEAKER_00: The that the that is interesting, and that's what
Armando mentioned the other day in our texting thread.
The last thing I want to mention about all of this money, um, it
says that the tour does not make a writer rich, it just makes
them valuable, which their name, their image, and everything else
like that.
So the tour itself is is yes, it brings in money, but it doesn't,
you know, it just helps them with the career.
Um, but really what it's doing is is it increases or decreases,
I hate to say that, their value.
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and you'll see a lot of a lot of times the
commentators will be talking that uh different riders uh
during the tour might their contracts might be coming up.
And uh so the their performance at the tour is a big deal if
they're going into contract negotiations in the next couple
of months.
Uh that can go a long way as you know, a a third place finish in
the tour versus uh 27th place in the in the tour, uh, a Jersey
win in the tour, things like that would all play into your
negotiation uh abilities.
So yeah, makes sense.
And that's what I have for you this time, my friend.
Very interesting.
Thanks for uh looking into that.
I don't think uh everybody really understands um you know
how these people get paid and where the money goes, but I I
appreciate you putting into uh in the uh research to give us uh
give us a rundown.
SPEAKER_00: So I almost didn't know how to use the old Google.
I've been AI.
Although I gotta tell you the truth, Google's kind of changed
too.
I haven't been in Google in a long time, but um it basically
gave me somewhat AI answers and then let me do a deep dive.
So that was kind of kind of I think they're it's all going
that way, buddy, whether I like it or not.
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
Hop on board.
Anyway, tomorrow, uh 176 miles, another flat day.
Sprinters are gonna be loving it.
It's gonna be their opportunity.
Uh, expect not only the sprinters, but uh crosswinds
could be a factor.
Uh might have to do some echelons tomorrow, who knows?
And we'll see how everything turns out again tomorrow.
Hopefully it'll be a little cooler like it was today.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll we'll talk tomorrow.
All right, sounds good.
And with that, I want to say happy birthday.
Hope you and your family can celebrate tonight.
But more than that, I know people are really enjoying this.
SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the