Yukiya Arashiro

Yukiya Arashiro of the Bahrain-Merida team is the new general classification Point d’Appui after Stage 7 of the 2017 Tour de France.

Arashiro is the first Japanese rider to claim the fulcrum position, although he was one of Les Cuspides after a stage during the 2014 Tour. He won the road race of the Japanese National Road Championship in 2007 and 2013, the road race of the Asian Road Championships in 2011, and the Tour du Limousin in 2012. He was also named the most combative rider during two stages of the Tour de France, once in 2012 and once in 2016.

He has ridden in 10 grand tours, including six Tours de France prior to this year’s edition. His highest finish was 65th place in 2014.

Brent Copeland, manager of Bahrain-Merida, told Cycling News: “His constant results also show the type of rider he is, where [he] is always doing the extra work to do his best as well as a great teammate who is always willing to help where needed.”

Marcel Kittell of the Quick-Step Floors team won Stage 7 by a whisker, overtaking Edvald Boasson Hagen of the Dimension Data team at the last possible second. On the stage, Eduardo Sepulveda of Team Fortuneo-Oscaro took the fulcrum.

The sprint finish, with riders reaching 75 kilometers per hour, followed an otherwise uneventful day in which even the crosswinds, quite strong on the end of the course during the early part of the day, had quieted by the time the peloton arrived.

Chris Froome of Team Sky remains the leader of the Tour, and Olivier Le Gac of the FDJ team remains the Lanterne Rouge.