For the first time in this year's Tour de France, André Greipel was beaten in a sprint when he had to settle for second in stage 7. However, he extended his lead in the points competition.

"It seems like sprint finishes are more and more tricky with more and more riders trying to take part," he told Letour.fr. "My team did a good job bringing me to the front with 2km to go. In the final sprint, the road was going up and I was dying a bit, that's why I didn't win.

"The next bunch sprint will be in Paris but by then I'll have other duties like supporting Tony Gallopin and going for some intermediate sprints."