NANCY, France: Italian Matteo Trentin gave his Omega Pharma-Quick Step (OPQS) team something to cheer about when he won the seventh stage of the Tour de France yesterday as top American contenders Tejay van Garderen and Andrew Talansky took tumbles.
Slovakian Peter Sagan was second and France’s Tony Gallopin finished third. Italian Vincenzo Nibali retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
It was a moment to savour for the OPQS team after their British sprinter Mark Cavendish pulled out injured after a crash on the first stage.
“I am very happy to have won this after the hard luck we had for the last six days and especially Mark Cavendish’s crash,” said Trentin after the 234.5-km ride from Epernay.
Van Garderen, 11th in the race at the start, fell with about 15 kilometres to go and lost 1:03 to the other favourites, dropping to 18th overall.
Also involved in the crash was his Colombian BMC team-mate Darwin Atapuma, who abandoned the race because of “unspecified injuries”, the team said in a statement .
“(It is) nothing major, I’ll be definitely fine to start tomorrow. It’s a tough blow but the Tour is long, the race changes,” Van Garderen said.
In the final straight Garmin-Sharp rider Talansky fell after colliding with Australian Simon Gerrans. He got back on his bike and, as the incident happened inside the final three kilometres, was credited with the same time as the bunch.
He moved up to eighth overall, but was fuming at Gerrans, who apologised shortly afterwards.
The sprinters dropped out when the peloton reached Col de Maron, a short fourth-category climb 20 kilometres from the finish.
In the final kick, a 1.3-km climb at an average gradient of 7.9 percent, Sagan and Greg Van Avermaet powered away from the pack before being caught.
Sagan was then beaten by a tyre’s length by Trentin who also won a Tour stage in Lyon last year.
The Tour hits the mountains today as the eighth stage takes the peloton to the Vosges massif for a 161-km trek from Tomblaine to Gerardmer.REUTERS
