Richie Porte is ready to make the most of his opportunity to lead Sky in the Tour de France and today he safely negotiated another tricky stage. The Australian praised Bernhard Eisel who did a lot of work to keep him protected all day.

Richie Porte was active as the seventh stage of the Tour de France reached a gripping conclusion with Matteo Trentin outsprinting Peter Sagan by the tightest of margins.

Porte was kept out of trouble for much of the 234.5km trek from Epernay to Nancy, and stayed with the main general classification contenders over a tough final climb before excelling on the twisting descent which followed.

The Australian proved instrumental in bringing back a late attack from Sagan (Cannondale) and Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing), and then surged ahead at the flamme rouge which enabled him to take the best line around the tight penultimate corner.

Porte then slipped back into a vastly-reduced peloton as the sprinters came to the fore, and was credited with the same time as the triumphant Trentin.

The Omega Pharma - Quick-Step rider was forced to kick early on the straight drag to the line but held his speed admirably and edged out Sagan by a matter of inches to seal his second win of the season.

With Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Fabian Cancellara (TrekFactory Racing) both losing time, Porte climbed two places to sixth in the overall standings and still sits one minute and 54 seconds down on yellow jersey holder Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).

Porte cut a relieved figure immediately after the stage and was pleased to have ticked off another nervous day as the race moves ever closer to the mountains.

He said: “It was such a long, stressful day. It might have looked easy on TV but it definitely wasn’t. I’m happy to have got that day done, and happy that the crosswinds didn’t materialize.

“Those transition stages are arguably the most difficult ones in the Tour and we saw Andrew Talansky and Tejay van Garderen both crash today. Thank God for my team-mates though, and especially Bernhard Eisel. He had me in his pocket all day and looked after me brilliantly.

“This is a big opportunity for me and I’m going to fight every day.”