Tinkoff-Saxo went into today's stage of the Tour de France with a plan to attack but quickly realized that a bunch sprint was unavoidable. Instead, they focused all their energy on Daniele Bennati who finished the stage in 6th.

With Alberto Contador out of the race, Tinkoff-Saxo is in search of stage wins in the Tour de France. Their best chance is by making it into a successful breakaway and so they planned to attack in today's stage.

However, a bunch sprint was unavoidable and so they changed their tactics to support sprinter Daniele Bennati fully.

“Our plan was to have a rider in the breakaway but we soon realized that the sprinter teams were eager to maintain control all the way and we decided to let it go and to offer all support for Benna," sports director Philippe Mauduit said. "Benna managed to sprint his way to 6th position and was just too far back going in on the small climb to make a better result. Tomorrow, I expect a breakaway to go all the way if the GC riders wait too long to start the battle."