Tour de France 2018: Peter Sagan completes hat-trick with Stage 13 win
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Updated 20/07/2018 at 17:08 GMT
Slovakian sensation Peter Sagan powered past Alexander Kristoff and Arnaud Demare to take his third victory of this year’s Tour de France as Britain’s Geraint Thomas retained the yellow jersey in the transitional Stage 13 to Valence in the Rhone valley.
Slovakia's Peter Sagan, wearing the best sprinter's green jersey, celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the 13th stage of the 105th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, between Le Bourg-d'Oisans and Valence, on July 20, 2018.
Image credit: Getty Images
In the absence of many of the top sprinters following a tough series of stages in the Alps, the world champion Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) proved his worth once more to secure a third win in the world’s biggest bike race for the third time in his career.
A perfect lead-out from his Groupama-FDJ team-mates put Frenchman Demare in an excellent position on the home straight, but Sagan surged clear form the slipstream of Norway’s Kristoff to deny the European champion a first win on the Tour since 2014.
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WATCH: Sagan powers to victory
An eleventh career stage scalp on the Tour saw Sagan further strengthen his vice-like grip on the green jersey, the 28-year-old moving onto 398 points – a staggering 228 points more than his nearest challenger, Kristoff – as he closes in on a record-equalling sixth title.
Germany’s John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) and Belgium’s Greg van Avermaet (BMC) completed the top five of the stage, which saw a four-man breakaway fail to build up a gap of more than three minutes over the pack.
After his latest exploit on the Tour, Sagan described the largely flat stage as “a piece of gold” for the peloton, adding: “It was a flat stage, and everyone could recover a bit in the group. I think everyone was happy in the bunch to have a relaxed stage.”
I'm very happy to win today, it's very nice for me and thanks to all my team-mates because they did a very good job. I thought I'd left it a little bit late, I was a little bit behind in the last 600m, then on the last turn I tried to bring myself up to the front, and after that I stayed on the wheel of Kristoff and I'm very happy to beat him.
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Sagan focusing on Paris after welcome calm on Stage 13
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'Sagan is just a better rider' - Demare offers simple explanation for loss
There were no changes on GC as Welshman Thomas took to the podium amid more boos from the French public after retaining his 1’39” lead over Sky team-mate Chris Froome, the four-time Tour champion. Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) stays in third place at 1’50” ahead of Saturday’s stage to the Massif Central.
Frenchmen Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and Pierre Latour (Ag2R-La Mondiale) retained their respective polka dot and white jerseys.
CALM AFTER THE STORM: After back-to-back summit finished and three successive days in the Alps, the intensity and drama was somewhat lacking in a largely sedate transitional stage that hugged the Isere valley of the Isere and Rhone either side of tackling the small but scenic mounds of the Monts du Matin in the shadow of the imperious Vercors Massif.
Belgian Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and New Zealand’s Tom Scully (EF Education First-Drapac) zipped clear shortly after the start and were soon joined by Switzerland’s Michael Schär (BMC) and Belgian Dimitri Claeys (Cofidis).
The advantage of the quartet topped out at three minutes as breakaway specialist De Gendt crested the Cat.3 Col de Brie in pole position before doubling up at the intermediate sprint. When the peloton passed through it was Kristoff who pipped Degenkolb and Sagan in the battle for the remaining green jersey points.
Going over the summit of the Cat.4 Cote de Sainte-Eulalie-en-Royans the gap was down to one minute as Scully took the solitary point. De Gendt and Claeys called it a day shortly after the 25km-to-go banner leaving Schar and Scully to battle it out for the daily combativity award.
It was the rangy Swiss who took the spoils as Scully soon sat up leaving Schar to enter time-trial mode in a drive to the line which came undone with 6km remaining. Team Sky were on the front of the pack to keep their leaders out of trouble – but once the magic 3km marker was passed the baton was passed over to the teams of the sprinters.
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Ask Sagan Episode 13 - Peter is joined by a very special guest!
Demare and Degenkolb benefited from dedicated trains from their Groupama and Trek-Segafredo teams – but it was the irrepressible Sagan who had the last laugh. He’s never won four stages in a single Tour before; it would be a fool to bet against him doing so this year.
COMING UP: Stage 14 – Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateau to Mende (187km)
Messieurs Bardet and Pinot had their pockets picked by Steve Cummings the last time the Tour came to Mende in 2015.
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Tour de France 2018: Stage 14 Profile
A tricky day in the Massif Central includes three categorised climbs ahead of the decisive Cote de la Croix Neuve – also known as the Montee Laurent Jalabert – before the road drops for what is usually an exciting and unpredictable finish at the Mende aerodrome.
This is one for the breakaway specialists rather than the GC riders – although Team Sky will be on red alert.
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