Polish date for Sagan

World champion Peter Sagan will return to racing in the Tour of Poland at the end of the month following disqualification from the Tour de France. His bid to win the Tour de France’s points classification for a record-equalling sixth straight year was ended when he was sent home by the race jury for causing the crash on stage four in which Mark Cavendish broke a shoulder blade. in the break saw him claw back one minute and 48 seconds, moving him up to fifth, 69 seconds back.

“Yesterday was a difficult day for me but today I felt a lot better and we played a lot with our team,” said Froome. “We had Mikel not a long way back on GC, and maybe over the next few days we can do the same thing again.”

Although they could not regain the yellow jersey Froome lost on Thursday, Sky put considerable pressure on Aru’s Astana team, which suffered another loss midway through the stage when Criterium du Dauphine winner Jakob Fuglsang abandoned.

The Dane had ridden for the best part of two days with fractures in his elbow and hand following a stage 11 crash.

It was a first career Tour stage win for Barguil, who has been out of form after he was one of six members of his team struck by a car during a training ride in January 2016.

“It feels really special,” the 25-year-old said of the win. “I’ve had two bad years behind me. Now I can show my real level again. I’m really happy.”