Sagan victory hints at further improvement
THREE-TIME world champion Peter Sagan warned his sprint rivals there was more to come after he powered to victory on stage five of the Tour de France.
The Bora- Hansgrohe rider was much too strong for Sonny Colbrelli of Bahrain-Merida and Quick-Step’s Philippe Gilbert in a sprint which came at the top of a short, punishing climb into Quimper.
Chris Froome and Adam Yates finished safely in the front group with no major changes to the general classification.
It was Sagan’s second stage
Sprint win: Peter Sagan
win of this Tour following stage two into La Roche-sur-Yon on Sunday, and the 10 th of his career.
The short climb inside the final kilometre tempted a number of the classics specialists to the fore, including BMC’s Greg Van Avermaet in the yellow jersey, but once the road levelled off it was Sagan who still had the most power left in his legs.
“I’m hoping still to improve,” the Slovakian said. “The Tour is very long and we are only on the fifth stage.
“Gilbert attacked a bit early, trying to drop everybody. Then Greg went early which was good for me as it meant I could follow. I just held off Colbrelli. I managed to keep my sprint longer.”
With Team Sunweb’s Michael Matthews forced to abandon the race in the morning, a sixth green jersey in seven years already looks like being Sagan’s to lose. BEECHMOUNT’S Davicia Patterson just failed to qualify for today’s World Junior Championships 400 metres final when she finished third in her semi-final race in Tampere, Finland.
The 17-year old Irish Junior record holder ran in 53.57 secs, ranking her 11 th — but only the first eight qualified for the final.
Patterson made valiant efforts to close the gap on eventual winner Ella Connolly of Australia, who was timed at 52.78 secs, plus runner-up Mary Mora of Kenya.
She had the consolation of recording her third fastest ever So close: Davicia Patterson just missed out on the final
time and will have learnt from what was her first experience on the world stage.
There were a number of other solid performances by the Irish team as 800m runner Jo Keane of Ennis achieved her ambition of a PB in a major championship with a time of two mins 6.91 secs for sixth place in her semi-final.
In the fierce competition, only the first two progressed to the final.
In the women’s 100m first round, Gina Akpe-Moses and Ciara Neville both secured solid second places to progress to today’s semis.
Irish Junior champion Neville (19) of Emerald ran an impressive race, qualifying easily in a time of 11.54 secs, just short of her PB of 11.52 secs.
Ciara was the eighth fastest qualifier from 24 athletes in a race won by Great Britain’s Kristal Awah.