Sagan’s ‘special day’ taking stage and yellow
LA ROCHE-SUR-YON: Wo r l d champion Peter Sagan said he had three reasons to be cheerful as he won stage two and took the overall leader’s yellow jersey in front of family and friends from Slovakia on the Tour de France on Sunday.
Sagan edged Sonny Colbrelli in a reduced sprint finish at La Roche-sur-Yon after a late crash in the peloton.
Overnight leader Fernando Gaviria came down in a mass high speed crash just 1.3km from the line, which Sagan and around 15 other riders avoided to set up a frantic finish.
Sagan leads Gaviria by six seconds in the overall standings, with champion Chris Froome trailing by 1min7sec.
Froome avoided a repeat of his first stage tumble, the Team Sky leader staying out of trouble as he goes in pursuit of a recordequalling fifth Tour triumph.
The Kenyan-born Briton said he was in good shape despite his recent woes.
“I’m feeling good. It’s obviously never much fun crashing,” he said in a lighthearted moment on the team bus.
“The legs feel good and I’m optimistic about what is to come hopefully,” said Froome.
Another Briton Adam Yates was delayed by a fall and two of his Mitchelton Scott teammates were both also involved in separate falls.
Sagan said: “It was something special with my father here and friends from my hometown.
“It was also our last realistic chance to get the yellow jersey with the team time-trial tomorrow.”
“It’s a great start for the fans,” he added.
“Fernando won yesterday and now I’m the one with the yellow jersey, it’s been exciting.
“I could see it was going to be a good year,” said Sagan, who was thrown off the Tour last year after being judged culpable of a fall that ended fellow sprinter Mark Cavendish’s Tour.
Alongside Froome and Tom Dumoulin, Sagan is perhaps cycling’s top star and has won the green jersey five times.
Overnight leader Colombia’s Gaviria, who is just 23, said he was happy to be in the white best young riders jersey, although he too will be in pursuit of the green sprint points tunic too.
“We’re happy, we had the yellow and that’s part of history. Tomorrow’s another day,” he said, with his Quick Step team amongst the favourites to win yesterday.
Germany’s Andre Greipel was fourth but never really involved in the struggle for first with the other three.
Yesterday’s third stage was a 35.5km team time-trial where the agenda for a tricky first week should be set with some significant time gaps expected on a slightly rolling course around Cholet in the same region as the first two stages.