Peter Sagan surprised everyone on the eve of the Tour when, when asked if he already had the stages to win in mind, he replied that he knew nothing about the Tour's route but just yesterday he saw the Cote des Religieuses looming where the finish line of the third stage was placed, the Verviers-Longwy, the world champion understood that this was a stage to be won: he took off like lightning, distancing everyone but fate, as if it knew that the Slovak loves to win but even more to show off, set itself against him making him lose the left pedal at the moment of maximum effort.
It only took a moment for Matthews, Van Avermaet and Daniel Martin to come upon him, deadly vultures ready to take advantage of the bad luck of others. It would have been the end for everyone but Sagan didn't give up, he put his foot back on the pedal in an instant and started playing another sprint which he won big: a sumptuous show, a lesson for everyone. Second is Matthews, then Martin and Van Avermaet. The group of the best arrives just 2” after the unleashed Sagan.
For him it is the eighth career victory in the Tour, where he has already collected 18 second places, the first important brick to build his sixth victory in the points classification, conquering again this year the green jersey which was his five consecutive times . Sagan's exploit ennobles an ordinary routine stage that brought the Tour back to France from Belgium after a fleeting crossing of the Principality of Luxembourg, the first stage under the sun after two days of torrential rain in Dusseldorf and Liège.
An undulating stage that hasn't changed the classification that still sees Geraint Thomas in yellow and Froome always with an advantage of about forty seconds over his rivals pretending to the final victory, among whom only Richie Porte tried to enliven the final stage with a few shot that put Contador in particular suffering. Skirmishes that ultimately did not produce any detachments.
For the first probationary test in terms of the standings, all we have to do is wait for tomorrow's stage, the fifth that will take the Tour to the top of the Planche des Belles Filles, an ascent that in 2012 revealed to the world the devastating strength of Froome, harnessed only by the team orders of Team Sky who had decided that a thoroughbred Englishman like the baronet Bradley Wiggins should win that Tour.
