The world champion, the Slovak Peter Sagan (Bora), won in the sprint on Friday in Valencia, the 13th stage of the Tour de France.
The world champion, the Slovak Peter Sagan (Bora) , won in the sprint on Friday in Valencia, the 13th stage of theTour de France , his third since the start.
The Welshman Geraint Thomas (Sky) has retained the yellow leader jersey after this stage of transition out of the Alps.
Sagan overcame in the last meters the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff and the French Arnaud Démare , in a private sprint of most specialists (Gaviria, Groenewegen, Greipel, Kittel, Cavendish …) stopped in the Alps.
The world champion had won in La Roche-sur-Yon , in the 2nd stage, and in Quimper, in the 5th stage.
11 successes since 2012
Aged 28, Sagan is now 11 success stage in the Tour since 2012. He also has five victories in the points classification (green jersey), waiting for the next at the end of the Tour if he rallies Paris .
In this stage of 169.5 kilometers, a duet, transformed into a quartet, formed from the first hour. New Zealander Tom Scully and Belgium’s Thomas De Gendt, joined at Km 29 by Switzerland’s Michael Schär and Belgium’s Dimitri Claeys, have long paved the way.
Schär, one of the BMC riders who won the team time trial at Cholet (4th stage), insisted alone in the last 25 kilometers. It was taken less than 6 kilometers from the line.
In the sprint, the Belgian Philippe Gilbert tried to surprise the sprinters by attacking the last kilometer. He forced the teammates of Démare to a big effort before the French sprint and be overwhelmed by Kristoff and Sagan.
Saturday, the 14th stage crosses the Cevennes to join Mende. The finish is judged on the aerodrome plateau, 1500 meters after the end of the rise of the New Cross (3 km at 10.2% slope).
