Tour de France: Sagan wins in Berne

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Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) claimed his third Tour de France stage victory, taking out a photo-finish sprint in Berne, Switzerland, on stage 16. Sagan's late bike throw denied Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) the stage he has been seeking, while Sondre Holst Enger (IAM Cycling) was third.

Hometown hero Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) mixed it up in the sprint, but failed to find his way through, coming in sixth behind John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange).

Sagan was pleasantly surprised to be awarded the stage victory, especially in light of his two-year streak of winning the green jersey competition without ever taking a stage victory, and his long stretch of second places before this season. This year he has racked up three Tour stages, equalling his record from the 2012 Tour de France, with one more chance to come on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

"It was a very long stage, it was very hot. I'm so happy, and so proud of my team because they did a very good job. I'm so happy to win for them, and for Tinkoff and Oleg [Tinkov]. It's unbelievable. A lot of times I lose races like this, and today I won. I believe in destiny, and now it's turning back," Sagan said.

The stage was a last hope for the sprinters ahead of the second rest day and four tough mountain stages, and time was running out for Kristoff and Katusha, who have gone winless so far this Tour de France. The brief moment of jubilation that Kristoff experienced, thinking he had won the stage, quickly turned to more disappointment as the review of the cameras showed Sagan pushing in front of Kristoff by millimetres.

"At the beginning we were really happy and celebrating because we thought we had the win. Then, it started to filter through that we hadn't," Katusha directeur sportif Jose Acevedo said. "It was disappointing. The organisers were saying Sagan had won and Kristoff was second. We lost by a tiny little margin.

"The team has worked really hard since the beginning of the Tour and right at the end we lost by a few millimetres. That's cycling, that's sport, and so we have another chance in Paris and hopefully Kristoff can win on the Champs-Elysees."

With the win, Sagan further padded his lead in the points classification over Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), who did not feature in the sprint, to a massive 114 point advantage, fuelling speculation that the Manxman will abandon on the rest day to begin his preparation for the track cycling events at the Olympic Games in Rio.

Although the final kilometers were riddled with opportunity for disaster to strike, with twists and turns, tram tracks, cobblestones and roundabouts, Chris Froome (Sky) finished safely in the peloton to remain in the race leader's yellow jersey. Froome continues to hold a 1:47 lead on Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and 2:45 on Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange), the latter holding onto his white jersey of best young rider.

"I wasn't actually up at the front those last few kilometers, it was pretty sketchy through all the towns, with lots of road furniture, lefts and rights and obviously over the cobbles," Froome said. "I was just trying to stay out of trouble and get to the finish as good as possible. I think everyone is quite glad there's a rest day tomorrow, that was a tough day out there."

After a rest day in Berne, the riders hit the Alps for three road stages and a short, uphill individual time trial. "I'm pretty tired to be honest, and looking forward to the rest day," Froome said. "I'm looking forward to the Alps. I'm motivated, the team's been great. I'm looking forward to the last few days now.

"I think the team's in fantastic shape. I don't think we've ever been at this point with nine riders left. That's a great advantage for us. The guys are doing well, the morale is high, and we have the leader's jersey and a lot to fight for still. We're looking forward to getting back into the mountains now."

Tour de France stage 16 highlights video

How it unfolded

A sunny, warm, calm day greeted the riders as they departed Moirans-en-Montagne with a 206km journey to Berne across the Swiss border, and it was a knock-down drag-out fight to be in the breakaway, as the sprinters' teams were not about to let the kind of large breakaway escape as has happened in the previous stages. In the chaos, Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) had a puncture but he quickly rejoined the peloton.

After 10km of a high pace, Tony Martin towed his Etixx-Quickstep teammate Julian Alaphilippe off the front, the Frenchman having had his ambitions of a stage 15 victory scuttled by a mechanical on the descent from the Colombier, and the day's breakaway was complete.

The pair were chased by several riders trying to join in, including Bert-jan Lindeman (LottoNl-Jumbo), and then a second counter-attack by Lawson Craddock (Cannondale-Drapac), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Vegard Breen (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Timo Roosen (Lotto NL - Jumbo) that was equally futile.

Martin went into long-distance individual time trial mode, doing all of the work with Alaphilippe in tow. The German was too strong even for four men to bridge across, and the quartet were swept up by the peloton finally after dangling in no-man's land for the better part of 80km.

The Martin-Alaphilippe tandem maxed out its lead over the peloton at six minutes, but as the stage wore on the peloton's strength began to overpower them. They had 1:20 at the intermediate sprint, where Alaphilippe took the points, and then dangled around 40 seconds ahead of the peloton, clearly enjoying their time in the spotlight, laughing and joking all the way to the day's only classified climb, the Cote de Muhleberg with 26km to go.

Alaphilippe, after a long afternoon of suffering behind the three-time individual time trial world champion, gave up the wheel before the top of the climb as Dimension Data halved Martin's lead to only 21 seconds.

Etixx-Quickstep's ambitions for the stage win appeared to become unglued along with Marcel Kittel, who was dropped on the Muhleberg and was attended by Iljo Keisse and then Alaphilippe, who had little left to give.

With 22km to go, Astana lost patience with Martin's breakaway, and an attack from Tanel Kangert, marked by Thomas Voeckler, finally ended the German's time off the front. Martin went straight out the back of the bunch without even lifting his pace to help Kittel, who was still trying to chase back on with Keisse.

Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) had a go with 21km to go, and built up a solid 15 second advantage on the wide open, flat Swiss motorway as the sprinters' teams began to get organized for the approach to the finish line in Berne.

Direct Energie and Dimension Data were mainly responsible for keeping Costa within arm's reach, working for Coquard and Cavendish, respectively. BMC, looking at a possible win for Van Avermaet, and wanting to keep their GC men Porte and Van Garderen safe from the tricky run-in with numerous roundabouts, amassed at the front, but there was little organisation outside the 10km to go banner.

Costa, a three-time Tour de Suisse winner continued to pour everything into the seemingly futile attack, holding 12 seconds with 8km to go. Steve Cummings led for most of the final kilometers, while Katusha finally found Alexander Kristoff and delivered him to position with 6km to go.

IAM Cycling finally brought Costa back with 4km to go, leading into a technical section of the course through multiple turns, cobbles, and tram lines onto a narrow, fast descent, looking to put Sondre Holst Enger onto the podium for the team's second stage victory after Jarlinson Pantano's stage 15 win.

Sep Vanmarcke found the pave to his liking and attacked with 1700m to go, marked by Ramunas Navardauskas and a Dimension Data rider, but the move could not last as Giant-Alpecin led the peloton past for Degenkolb.

In the end, it was a chaotic push for the line, with Degenkolb, Holst Enger, Matthews and even Cancellara pushing for the win but Sagan took it in a photo finish.
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