World champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) won his first Tour de France stage in three years when he outsprinted Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) on the uphill finish in Cherbourg. The victory and time bonus that came with it put the Tinkoff rider into the yellow jersey as race leader Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) lost ground on the final climb.
"I am very surprised I won, because I was thinking that there were still two guys in the front," Sagan said. "Then when I finished I didn't know I won and later realized the breakaway had been caught.
"It is the first time in my career to have the yellow jersey, and it is unbelievable. I'm already wearing a nice jersey [world champion], but this one is also very nice."
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Set up by Tinkoff teammate Roman Kreuziger, Sagan found himself on the front 500 metres out and immediately decided it was too soon to make his move. Looking around to see what was happening behind him, he saw Alaphilippe coming through and manoeuvred cleverly onto the Frenchman’s wheel.
The Etixx rider opened up his sprint 100 metres from the line, only to see Sagan surge past him at the very last to take victory, with Valverde close behind in third. GC favourites Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) also finished strongly and in the same time as Sagan, but other notables lost ground.
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) yielded 48 seconds to his rivals. The Spaniard crashed onto his right shoulder for the second consecutive day and looked to be in some pain on the run-in. Richie Porte (BMC Racing) lost almost two minutes when he suffered a very untimely puncture six kilometres from the finish and then received a slow rear wheel change from the neutral service.
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