Rodez, France: Greg Van Avermaet finally banished his demons but Peter Sagan’s frustrating two-year wait for a Tour de France stage win continues following yesterday’s 13th stage.
Van Avermaet beat Sagan in a tight finish at the end of the 198.5km stage from Muret to Rodez to take the biggest win of his career.
So often missing out narrowly in major races, the 30-year-old Belgian was second at the Tour of Flanders last year and third this year, also finishing third at Paris-Roubaix having come fourth in 2013.
This was only his second Grand Tour stage win — he took one at the Vuelta a Espana in 2008.
“For me it’s a big victory, finally I made it!” said Van Avermaet.
“I was a few times close this year in the Classics so I came here to win a stage.
“Especially in the first week a few times I was close but didn’t win.
“I survived the Pyrenees with this kind of stage in mind, I’m really happy I made it.
“Coming here and winning a stage in the Tour was one of my dreams.”
Sagan finished a bike length behind to earn his fourth runner-up spot during this Tour, his ninth since his last win in 2013 and his 20th top-five finish in that period.
“I’m not sad, I’m pissed (off), it’s different,” said the affable Slovak, with a twinkle in his eye.
The 25-year-old sat on Van Avermaet’s wheel all the way up the tough final 570m climb to the finish and looked primed to dart out from behind the Belgian to win the stage.
But he said he should have launched his sprint sooner.
“I waited too long to start my sprint and if I had continued pushing hard, I think I would have beaten him.
“But after getting out of the saddle, I sat back down and tried to accelerate but I didn’t have the legs any more.”
Van Avermaet, by contrast, attacked early and held on grimly.
“It was really hard, I actually didn’t know who was in my wheel. I went pretty early, I just kept on going, kept on going.
“I saw still one rider in my wheel, there was one guy with still 200m to go.
“I was dead and just hoping he wouldn’t come over.
“I’m really happy I could hold on and have a victory like this.”
Jan Bakelants was third at 3sec with John Degenkolb in fourth, heading home a group of 11 riders at 7sec, including race leader Chris Froome in sixth.
All his main rivals finished just behind him so the 30-year-old Briton maintained his 2min 32sec lead over Tejay Van Garderen with Nairo Quintana third at 3min 09sec.
But he said that, given a 570m climb with an average gradient of 9.6 percent had provoked a battle among the favourites, Saturday’s 14th stage would see even greater hostilities.
“We already saw on a 500m climb like today gaps opening up so tomorrow on a climb like Mende at 3km and more than 10 percent, I definitely think the GC (general classification) guys will be fighting to gain time,” said the Sky team leader.
Right from the off in yesterday’s stage there was a six-man breakaway but the peloton, led by some of the sprinters’ teams, never allowed them more than a four-minute lead on a day when temperatures reached almost 40 degrees Celsius.
With 15km left the break was down to three riders — Wilco Kelderman, Cyril Gautier and Thomas De Gendt — and at the 10km mark they had a 50-second lead on the peloton.
That was down to less than 10 seconds inside the final
kilometre of the race and it
wasn’t long after they started the climb to the finish that riders started to come surging past.
AFP
