Numbers, curiosities and statistics help us to re-read and delve deeper into what we witnessed in yesterday's stage. Follow us:

5: SPRINT MASTER
Once again superior to his rivals in the sprint, Tim Merlier won in Bergerac, completing a technical final kilometre at an average speed of 67 km/h. The Belgian thus secured his fifth victory on the roads of the Tour de France, the day after his win in Bordeaux. The Soudal–Quick-Step sprinter opened his account in 2021, on the third day in Pontivy, before raising his arms twice last year, in Dunkerque and Châteauroux.

7: MERLIER STOPS POGACAR'S STREAK
In Bergerac, Tim Merlier became the seventh rider to win two consecutive stages of the Tour in the last ten years. By raising his arms in the sub-prefecture of Dordogne, he is the first sprinter to achieve such a feat since his compatriot Jasper Philipsen in 2023, who won on the third day in Bayonne and the following day on the Nogaro racing circuit. Merlier also ended Tadej Pogacar's dominance in this category: the Slovenian had indeed signed a double (Pla d'Adet and Plateau de Beille) and then a triple (Isola 2000, Col de la Couillole and Nice) in 2024, before doing it again last year by winning the twelfth and thirteenth stages, at Hautacam and Peyragudes in the Pyrenees.

126: IN A NEW CIRCLE
Winning 5 or more races at the Tour de France is not within everyone's reach, far from it. The proof is that Tim Merlier is only the 126th rider in history to achieve this result among the 865 stage winners of the Tour. This represents only 14.6% of them! And among the riders present in this edition, besides the Belgian sprinter, only three have reached a similar milestone: Tadej Pogacar (23 victories), Jasper Philipsen (10) and Julian Alaphilippe (6).

9: PODIUMS BECOME A HABIT
Biniam Girmay, who also sprinted impressively and secured second place, reaches another podium at the Tour de France. The Eritrean has achieved this for the ninth time in his career. But the sprinter from the NSN team has not won since the twelfth stage of the 2024 edition in Villeneuve-sur-Lot. Since then, the former green jersey wearer finished second in Lille last year and third in Bordeaux this year.

3: A DIFFICULT PERIOD
Jasper Philipsen is unable to celebrate at the Tour de France. The Belgian, who is aiming for stage victories in bunch sprints, has yet to find a podium this year. For the Alpecin–Premier Tech sprinter, fourth in Bergerac and fifth in Pau and Bordeaux, it is the first time since 2019 that he has not been among the top five in three consecutive sprints. Results that contrast with his three victories in Pau and Nîmes in 2024, then in Lille last year. However, Philipsen confirms his significant presence in sprints: in the 28 sprints he has participated in since 2021, he has missed the top 5 only twice: in Turin, at the finish of the second stage of the 2024 Tour (118th after a delay due to a crash), and in Dunkerque, during the 3rd stage of the 2025 Tour (abandoned due to a crash).

1.4: VAN DER POEL THEN ESCAPES, MERLIER IS A KILLER
In the breakaway from the start of the stage, Liam Slock valiantly resisted the trains of the sprinters' teams for many kilometres. The Belgian Lotto–Intermarché rider was caught by the peloton just 1.4 km from the finish. The last rider to experience a similar result so close to the end was Mathieu Van der Poel. The Dutchman, then in a duo with his Belgian teammate Jonas Rickaert, held on until 800 m from the finish in Châteauroux, during the ninth stage last year. The winner of that stage was... Tim Merlier, yes, him again.

3: A TEAM OF BOLD PEOPLE
Thanks to his solo performance against a chasing peloton, Liam Slock received the award for combativity. An award that his Lotto–Intermarché team has received for the third time since the start of this Tour – the 32nd in its history – after the two adventures of Baptiste Veistroffer during the fifth and seventh stages. This is the second consecutive day that the Belgian team receives this award, something that had not happened since 2023. Victor Campenaerts, then a member of the team, won it at the 18th and 19th stages, before being elected "super-combative" at the end of the Tour.