Tour de France: Peter Sagan wins 13th stage

Slovakian Peter Sagan underlined his sprint credentials for the third time on the Tour de France Friday after powering to victory in the 13th stage from Bourg dOisans to Valence Sagan of the Bora team is one of the few real sprint specialists still in the race after surviving an Alpine stage trilogy that proved fatal to the hopes of rivals Mark Cavendish Marcel Kittel Andre Greipel Dylan Groenewegen and Fernando GaviriaAll the aforementioned exited the race over two tough days in the Alps and Sagan who had won two stages on this edition so far was quick to capitaliseIt was very beautiful to win today after three days in the Alps said Sagan whose 11th stage win on the race helped take his tally in the points competition to 398 points Norwegian Alexander Kristoff UAE who finished a close second has 170 while Frenchman Arnaud Demare of Groupama has 133 I was on the wheel of Alexander Kristoff then I made my move But it wasnt easy for meThe team did a great job but in the last kilometre I was maybe in 20th or 25th position so I had to sprint to get back up to the front Sagan was given extra work after Belgian upstart Philippe Gilbert Quick Step brazenly attacked a leading peloton full of ambitious sprinters 930 metres from the line But Sagan and his rivals didnt flinchThey kept the pace high and oneday classics specialist Gilbert was caught much to his dismay with 245m remaining The Groupama team of Demare as well as Kristoffs UAE outfit had been key in chasing down a relatively tame fourman breakaway in the closing kilometres of the race But the Frenchman came up short when it came to payback He launched his burst first but as Kristoff and Sagan came up on his left Demare ran out of juiceI thought I was going to win I started my sprint well but I came up short Sagan was too strong he said Sagan now has one hand on a sixth green jersey and one eye now on winning the final stage to the Champs Elysees But the 28yearold Slovakian star who on Thursday announced his impending divorce from his wife Katarina wont be performing any of his trademark wheelies just yetTheres a lot of tough stages to do before we get to the Champs Elysees said Sagan I have to be a bit closer to Paris before I start doing a wheelie Britains Geraint Thomas fresh from winning two stages in the Alps remained in the leaders yellow jersey The Welshman leads Sky teammate Chris Froome by 1min 39secs with Dutchman Tom Dumoulin Sunweb third overall at 150Although Froome is Skys team leader Thomas said I hope to keep the jersey as long as possible But its a threeweek race and the Pyrenees are going to be even tougher The 14th stage is a difficult and technical ride over 188 km starting in SaintPaulTroisChateauxAlthough Sky will be hoping to keep powder dry for the crucial third week Froome said their rivals could try to steal time on the steep 3kmlong climb to the finish in Mende Were waiting for tomorrow Its not an easy stage said Froome Tomorrow we could see some little time differences between the favouritesCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever