Sagan takes centre stage
The Slovakian, who had finished second three times already in this Tour, tasted victory after an outstanding performance from his Cannondale team, who forced the pace of the peloton for much of the day to drop his major sprint rivals early in the stage.
Daryl Impey (OricaGreenEdge) was close behind to ensure he retained the yellow jersey for another day with Team Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) in second and third.
Irish riders Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin steered clear of harm’s way and crossed the line in 33rd and 56th place respectively and are now ninth and 15th overall, with Roche 14 seconds down and Martin at 22 seconds.
But there is expected to be a major shake-up in the overall standings today as the race hits the Pyrenean mountains, and Martin said he’s just relieved to have gotten this far without crashing.
“Its been a pretty incredible week so far with so many guys crashing,” he relieved last night. “Everyone is so fresh and motivated to do well that it creates panic in the bunch. But hopefully, when we hit the mountains today the race can settle down.”
Today’s stage is just shy of 200 kilometres and in such oppressive heat, will be a real test. There’s one category four climb after 26 kilometres before the road really ramps up. And after three hours of racing, this will be anything but straight-forward.
The climb to the hors categorie Col de Pailheres summit reaches over 2,000metres and averages a stinging 8% all the way. The riders will catapult off this, down into Ax-les-Thermes before arrowing back up to the finish at Ax-3-Domaines.
Tomorrow is even more testing and the stage features five climbs, four of which are category one summits but Roche and Martin look poised to move further up the GC.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
