For the fourth time in this year's Tour de France, Peter Sagan finished second when he was beaten by Alexander Kristoff in the bunch sprint on stage 12. The Slovakian is starting to get frustrated but admits that the Norwegian was the strongest rider today.

Peter Sagan may have a commanding lead in the points competition but the Slovakian has done nothing to hide that he wants a stage win as well. Despite his impressive consistency, he always seems to come up against a stronger rider and today he again had to settle for second behind Alexander Kristoff.

The result was his fourth second place in the race and he has now finished in the top 5 in 8 out of 12 stages. Sagan openly admits that he was beaten by a stronger rider and will now save energy as he hopes to win a stage in the final week.

"I'm thinking that maybe it's my destiny to finish second at this Tour de France," he said. "I feel ok - I'm not too much disappointed, I have to accept it and look ahead. Many riders would be happy to take a second place in the Tour de France, so I don't want to be too negative.
 
"I knew the efforts my teammates did to help me in the last stages and today the strategy was to wait for the final climbs and then manage the finale. As usual they did a great work and I was in a good position for the sprint, but Kristoff had something more than me and took the win.

 
"Since the beginning I did my best in all the stages suited for me. And this made me more tired compared to other riders. My goal now is to pass the mountains stages, save the energy as much as possible and try again to win in the last week of race.