Sagan wins 13th stage as Thomas holds on to Tour lead

Bengaluru, July 21: World champion Peter Sagan claimed his third win of this year's Tour de France when he prevailed on the 13th stage, a 169.5-km ride from Bourg d'Oisans.

The Slovak beat Norway's Alexander Kristoff and Frenchman Arnaud Demare, who were second and third, respectively. Briton Geraint Thomas retained the overall leader's yellow jersey, after he and Team Sky mate Chris Froome were booed by the crowd before the start.

Sprinters Fernando Gaviria of Colombia and Dylan Groenewegen of the Netherlands, winners of two stages each, abandoned the race during the stage ending atop the iconic Alpe d'Huez, exhausted after an opening block of racing in extreme heat.

Sagan, however, went through the first three mountain stages with relative ease and had enough gas in the tank for the final effort in Valence, where he outsprinted Kristoff and Demare into second and third place respectively.

This was one of the hardest stages of @letour I have ever raced. For me, it was about surviving the Alps and the three tough climbs. It's a hard Tour, we have to fight every day. @BORAGmbH @Hansgrohe_PR @iamspecialized @sportful @ride100percent https://t.co/SKNHRfDpzu

— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) July 19, 2018

"My team did an amazing job. I took Kristoff's wheel for the sprint," said Sagan.

The overall standings remained unchanged at the top with Thomas leading defending champion Chris Froome by one minute 39 seconds and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin by 1:50.

The stage went through Virille, once home to 1990 Tour King of the Mountains Thierry Claveyrolat, who committed suicide in 1999.The peloton set off from Bourg d'Oisans without Vincenzo Nibali after the 2014 champion withdrew from the race following a crash apparently caused by a spectator in the climb up to l'Alpe d'Huez.

A four-man breakaway featuring New Zealand's Tom Scully, Swiss Michael Schar as well as Belgians Thomas De Gendt and Dimitri Claeys were kept on a tight leash by the main bunch.

Schar went solo with 25km remaining, but Demare's Groupama FDJ team accelerated in front of the peloton to set up a mass sprint, and it was a compact bunch five kms from the line.

In yet another incident affecting the race, a flare was thrown into the peloton with under 20kms left, but no riders were injured.

One kilometer from the finish, former world champion Philippe Gilbert jumped away from the speeding pack but came up short.

Demare launched a sprint 200 meters from the line, only for Sagan to come around and snatch his 11th career Tour victory and extend his lead in the points classification.

(with inputs from Agencies).