Gallery
Not As Expected
Everyone knew that the short steep climb right before the finish in Le Havre was going to alter the sprint. Although in the pre-race interviews all of the sprinters and their team directors were down playing how hard the climb was going to be. So as everyone assaulted the base of the climb, it was beginning to look like it was the stage for either Peter Sagan (Tinkoff Saxo) or Bryan Coquard (Europcar). The only more or less pure sprinter to get into the mix was Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) although, John Debenkolb (Giant Alpecin) wasn't very far off of the pace either. With Etixx-Quickstep having driven the pace for most of the day they seemed to be saying that Mark Cavendish would be up for the challenge. Instead of Cavendish claiming his first victory in the 102nd Tour, as well as the first for his team, that honor went to Zdenek Stybar instead. Alas, the jubilant celebration for Etixx-Quickstep was going to be very, very short lived. Whereas their was cause for Sagan to celebrate his second place. Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) was one of the sprinters who couldn't scale the final climb with the leaders, so Sagan has pulled closer to Greipel in the battle for the Maillot Vert.