The last stage before the last rest day of the Tour de France – this was the last chance for the sprinters before the Champs Élysées on Sunday. Looking to take a hat-trick of stage wins, the UCI World Champion, Peter Sagan battled with his rivals on the hard finale in Berne to take the stage win by a tyre’s width, while Roman Kreuziger finished with the same time in the bunch to hold onto his 11th spot in the GC, ready for the last few days in the mountains.
Half the stage in France, half the stage in Switzerland – the Tour de France moved into its third country of the race, having already visited Spain and the Principality of Andorra. Ahead of the second rest day as the race entered its final week, the 209km route from Moirans-en-Montagne to Berne, the Swiss capital, took in an undulating parcours that while hilly, crossed only one categorised climb – the fourth category Côte de Mühleberg. This didn’t mean the day was going to be easy, however, with temperatures approaching 30° and the long distance – the 7% and then 6.5% kicks just before the finish might prove too much for the pure sprinters.
Ten kilometres into the stage and the break of the day escaped – managing to stay out in front for most of the day. On such a long and arduous stage in such warm weather, the peloton was in no hurry to chase the pair down – although this didn’t stop the team working hard and upping the pace to deliver Peter Sagan to the intermediate sprint at 167km, who was first from the bunch to collect the remaining points to add to his green jersey total. With only the end of the stage to contest, the peloton reeled in the last member of the break, and the race was on for the finish.
High speeds and a winding street circuit were the theme of the final 10km as the race entered Berne. While the streets were beautiful and picturesque, riders had to contend with cobbles and tight turns, in addition to the high pace. Attacks came as the puncheurs tried to get away and deny the pure sprinters, and on the final drag just before the flamme rouge, the effort was showing on the faces of the riders. Peter was still looking strong however, and with an immensely strong finish, he took the win in the bunch sprint by a tyre’s width to extend his lead in the Green Jersey contest and to take his tally of wins in this year’s race to three.
After such a hard-fought contest for the win, Peter was thrilled with the outcome. “I am so happy, so proud of my team as they did a very good job, I’m so happy to win for them, for Tinkov and for Oleg. A lot of times I lose the race by this much and today I won. I believe in destiny and today it’s turning back. There are fans here from Telekom Slovakia and it’s very nice they can be here to see me and cheer for me today.”
With such a close finish, it took some time before he found that he’d won the stage after a photo finish review. “It was a very long stage, very hot and my teammates did a great job and pulled all day because we knew the final was good for me. We’re in the third week so you can’t say who’s the best for a finish like this but I did my best and I think Alexander made a mistake in the jump for the line – I didn’t know I’d won, it’s was a nice surprise today.”
Sport Director, Steven De Jongh, was full of praise for how the team had pulled together to enable Peter to contest the win. “It was a brilliant day for the team today. The guys did really well – Martin was out there with Alaphilippe and Martin is not an easy guy to chase so we joined the other teams to give them a hand as we had confidence in Peter for the finish. In his final jump he did really well, and it was an amazing finish. He’s a real champion. Roman was also up there and did a good job as it was really hectic on the run-in so he had to move up from a little further back but he was there at the end.”
Having performed so strongly on yesterday’s mountain stage, Rafal Majka was pleased to be part of such a well-performing team. “Yesterday I was second and today Peter wins, for us it’s great and we have three stage wins in the Tour de France and two jerseys right now so I’m happy. We don’t have our big leader in Alberto here but we still give everything and it’s another very good result. It might be our last season but we do our best still and when we have good condition we try to win everything. I think it was a nice finish for Peter today – he had strong legs and was very impressive in the sprint. For me, I went easy in the last 5km as I had a hard day yesterday and there are some big climbing days to come.”
Ahead of the rest day, De Jongh was confident in the team’s performances and was looking ahead to the final days of the race. “The green jersey feels like it’s more secure after today and we also have the polka dot jersey, which is nice to defend over the last week. Tomorrow it’s the rest day, and the boys will have a spin and a good lunch and get some sleep and massage before the last days here.”
The race goes into its second and final rest day tomorrow to prepare for the last five stages of the race. When the race returns, it will spend a whole day in the Swiss mountains on Wednesday with a 184.5km stage that covers four categorised climbs – rising from the start to take on two third category climbs, before a descent that leads us into the first category Col de la Forclaz before the Hors Catégorie climb to the finish. Riders will be rested, but this will be an incredibly tough day.
Ron is the chief cook and bottlewasher at Bike World News, doing everything from website design to bike reviews.
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