Trentin wins stage 7 of the Tour de France

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Omega Pharma-QuickStep's Matteo Trentin took a photo-finish win over Peter Sagan (Cannondale) in the sprint finish of the seventh stage of the Tour de France. Multiple crashes in the final kilometer had decimated a field already ripped apart by the fast pace set in the closing kilometers. Tony Gallopin of Lotto-Belisol was third on the day.

Race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) survived the finale to arrive in the same time as the winner, and easily defended his lead over teammate Jakob Fuglsang, with a frustrated Sagan still third at 44 seconds back.

Usually the winner knows, but that was not the case for Trentin. "It was only on the photo finish that I saw that I won by a centimetre and a half. It was a stressful run-in to the line. I couldn't see who was setting the pace on the climbs; I just hung on and got into position at the end to come out on top. I used a lot of energy for this victory. It is an important victory for me."

Cannondale had worked hard all day, leading the chase of the break group and driving the pace at the end. Sagan had jumped on the final descent and hoped to stay away. When caught, he easily changed his plan to take the sprint win. It couldn’t have been much closer, as many observers declared him the winner. But the photo showed that Trentin crossed the line first by the very narrowest of margins.

Photo: © Tim de Waele/TDW Sport

In the seven stages so far, Sagan has finished no lower than fifth, but also no higher than second. He has one fifth place, three fourth places and now three second places, but is still impatiently awaiting his first win at this Tour and his fifth Tour stage win.

Another favourite for a high GC ranking suffered a setback. Tejay van Garderen (BMC) was involved in a crash with about 16 km to go. The pace was so high at the time, remaining so until the end, and the American was unable to catch the leading group again. He dropped from 11th overall to 18th and is now 3:14 down.

There were a number of crashes on the day, and two in the finale. The first of those cut the sprinting field of favourites down to about twenty. Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) crashed within sight of the finish line but was uninjured.

"There's no such thing as an easy stage, it was very fast speeds and a few falls so it was stressful at the end," Nibali said. "I'm feeling good for tomorrow but the important things was to get through this stage without any accidents."

Photo: © Tim de Waele/TDW Sport

A slow start and a fast finish

It was the second-longest stage of this year’s Tour, at 234.5 km from Epernay to Nancy. Alexandre Pichot (Europcar), Matthew Busche (Trek), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Martin Elmiger (IAM), Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp) and Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne-Séché) slipped clear and established themselves after 9.5km.

The group created a gap to over four minutes, and that set the alarm off for Cannondale. Peter Sagan had his aim fixed on winning today and his team set out to head the chase.

A two minute-gap made everyone happy, and they continued on that way for an extended period.

However, with 80km to go the gap was down to around one-minute. And 35km later, the gap was at 40 seconds, and the lead group was no longer working at full steam. Finally Huzarski and Elmiger took off. The remaining four were caught by the field with 40km to go, and the two up front slowly built their lead up.

The stage held a sting in its tail – two category four climbs in the final 17 kilometres, the last one only five kilometres before the finish line. Huzarski and Elmiger were finally caught again as they started up the penultimate climb, the Cote de Maron. Orica-GreenEdge led the chase but it was Omega Pharma-QuickStep who swept past them first. The pace was high enough that sprinters started dropping back. Stage winners Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) and Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) were amongst those who would not be around in the finale.

The never-tiring Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) attacked on the climb. Orica-GreenEdge moved back to the front and chased the Frenchman, catching him before the summit.

A crash on the descent took down Tejay van Garderen (BMC), amongst others. He jumped on a teammate’s bike and hurried back, anxious to defend his 11th place in GC.

Omega Pharma and Tinkoff-Saxo were at the head of the field and the pace was furious. Michael Rogers drove the field along, increasing the difficulty for van Garderen. With 8km to go, the much-decreased field was flying along at 50 km/h.

Van Garderen by now had virtually his whole team with him, hoping to catch back up. BMC’s Greg Van Avermaet was in the lead group and moved to the front, hoping to slow things down in help of his captain. But Cannondale and Omega Pharma were having none of that, and pushed the tempo again.

Cyril Gautier of Europcar imitated his teammate Voeckler and attacked on the Cote de Boufflers.

After he was caught, Van Avermaet decided to go on the attack, together with Peter Sagan. The two pulled away on the descent, quickly building up a lead. Omega-Pharma, Garmin, Orica, were all more noticeable at the front of the chase than Astana with yellow jersey Nibali.

The technical finish suited Sagan and for a while it looked as if he would be able to pull it off. But with just less than 2km to go, he saw the closely approaching field and sat up.

Richie Porte, the new Sky captain, led the case to catch the two. A crash at one of the final corners before the finish line cut the field, leaving only about 20 riders to go for the win.

Omega Pharma opened the sprint, and there was yet another crash within sight of the finish line, with Talansky somersaulting into the barriers. It was a photo finish between Sagan and Trentin, but once again, Sagan came up short

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