For the second day in a row, Peter Sagan went down in a crash but the Slovakian proved his class as he still managed to finished fifth on the stage. He lamented having been boxed in which prevented him from ever launching his sprint and now sets his sights on tomorrow.
With his excellent bike-handling skills, Peter Sagan rarely crashes but the last two days have not been good for the Slovakian sprinter. Today he went down for the second day in a row and even had to chase hard to rejoin the peloton which split in the crosswinds around that time.
Sagan managed to rejoin the action and finished the stage in fifth to extend his lead in the points competition. However, he regretted the circumstances of the sprint that never allowed him to drop the hammer.
"Today the most important thing is that I have nothing broken," he said. "Two crashes in two days are not something that makes me happy, but I'm ok. The crash happened during the descent before the intermediate sprint. The road was wet, a few riders slid down in front of me and I had to set foot on the road. A few other riders, who were coming from behind, slid as well and hit me.
"About the finale... well, there are not many things to say. Simply, I wasn't able to sprint. I was boxed in and I finished fifth doing nothing, just pedaling. I hope to absorb the bruises I have on my body as soon as possible.
"If I look back at the stages we've done, I have two different feelings. I have a good advantage in the green points classification, I have always finished in the front.
"On the other side, this is not my first Tour de France, it's the third experience, and my aim is to do better and improve year by year. I had the chance to take the yellow jersey and I always got close to the win. Even today I wanted to sprint but I had no chance.
"It's a little frustrating, maybe sometimes I ask too much to myself. But now I just want to keep concentrated and try again.
"But after two crashes I'm still here while other riders have had to go home. I just hope that my bad luck is gone. Today I've been boxed in and I came fifth without even sprinting, so it's all good for the green jersey. Maybe tomorrow is my chance for a stage win finally, but firstly I have to recover from my crash.”
For the sixth consecutive day Sagan keeps the white jersey - for the fifth, the green jersey.
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