BMC duo Tejay van Garderen and Richie Porte were happy to make it to the finish of the fourth consecutive sprint stage to Limoges, knowing the Tour de France race route turns in their favour and heads in to the Massif Central mountains on Wednesday.
Both finished safely in the peloton in the same time as winner Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) and so van Garderen remained in the same time as his overall rivals, 18 seconds down on Peter Sagan (Tinkoff). Porte, after losing time with puncture on stage 2, is 71st at 2:03.
The Tasmanian knows that he will have to take back time if he wants to fight for overall success but explained that the four short climbs on the road to Le Lioran is not the day to do it.
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"With the downhill finish, I don't think you're going to make up much time but it's still a hard finish. You've got to take the initiative sometime but I don't think tomorrow is it," Porte explained, warning of the dangers the overall contenders face in the Massif Central.
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"We have done the recon, and there are a couple of nasty climbs in there. But also the run-in is a nasty, it's technical downhill so that could play a part in it too. There's a bit of a kick to the finish so for sure the last 40 kilometres are really going to trim the field out a little bit. Which is a good thing, it won't be so hectic as it has been."
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