Sagan continues green charge at Tour

Daryl Impey retains the yellow jersey as green jersey leader Peter Sagan wins seventh stage of Tour de France.

Peter Sagan
Slovakian Sagan snuggles into the green once more with a lead of 94 points over rivals [GALLO/GETTY]

Peter Sagan thrashed his rivals in the fight for the green jersey when he won the seventh stage of the Tour de France after a fine tactical move by his Cannondale team on Friday.

Sagan outsprinted German John Degenkolb and Italian Daniele Bennati at the end of a 205.5-km ride from Montpellier to move 94 points clear in the points classification.

Rivals Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel scored no points on the day after being dropped following a brutal acceleration by Cannondale on a tricky climb and finishing almost 15 minutes behind Sagan.

“After my first-day crash, I didn’t feel very good and I trusted in myself every day and now, day by day, I feel better and today came my first victory in the Tour de France and I thank my team,” said Sagan.

“I am very happy and I thank my team because without my team I couldn’t have done what I did. This victory is for all our team.”

South African Daryl Impey retained the overall leader’syellow jersey, which he will probably lose after Saturday’s first mountain stage, a 195-km trek between Castres and Ax-3-Domaines.

“We came out here today to protect the jersey and we have done that,” Impey said in a television interview.

Pre-race favourites Alberto Contador and Chris Froome made it safely to the finish but American Christian Vande Velde abandoned after being involved in a huge crash after 11 kilometres.

Source: News Agencies