Ewan takes second win of Tour as Sagan suffers

CALEB Ewan snatched his second stage victory of this year’s Tour de France as a penalty for Peter Sagan saw Sam Bennett extend his advantage in the points leader’s green jersey at the end of stage 11.

Bennett could not repeat what was his first career Tour stage win 24 hours earlier in Ile de Re as he swapped places on the podium with Ewan, his third place on the road being upgraded to second after Sagan was punished for a shove on Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert, who was promoted to third.

The 167.5km stage from Chatelaillon-Plage ended in a somewhat messy sprint, with Van Aert lighting it up early before he was shoved out of the way by the hard-charging Sagan, while Ewan had the speed to round Bennett before the line.

The photo finish for second between Sagan and Bennett became irrelevant once commissaires had studied the footage again, relegating Sagan to 85th on the day.

There was no change at the top of the general classification, with Slovenian Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma continuing to lead by 21 seconds from defending champion Egan Bernal of the Ineos Grenadiers.

■ Geraint Thomas moved up to fourth overall at Tirreno-Adriatico as Michael Woods won stage three in Saturnia.

Welshman Thomas, who is using the race to prepare for the start of the Giro d’Italia next month after being left out of the Ineos Grenadiers squad for the Tour de France, was among the main group of contenders – also including Simon Yates - who crossed the line 20 seconds after Woods and Rafal Majka.

The result leaves Thomas 30 seconds down on Woods in the overall standings, with Mitchelton-Scott’s Yates on the same time and ranked ninth.

“I felt a lot better than I did three weeks ago and this race will do me the world of good and move me on to be ready for the Giro,” said Thomas.