Sagan stretches lead over sprinters

Slovakian Peter Sagan dominated a bunch sprint to win the seventh stage of the Tour de France yesterday as South African Daryl Impey defended the race leader's yellow jersey.

Sagan, last year's winner of the race's green jersey points competition, surged in the final 150 metres of the 205.5km stage from Montpellier to Albi to claim his first win of the 100th edition.

Germany's John Degenkolb (Argos) and Italian Daniele Bennati (Saxo) finished a bike length behind in second and third respectively.

It ends a frustrating first week for Sagan, who despite wearing the green jersey for the race's points competition, has narrowly missed out on sprint wins on four occasions.

"The team did an incredible job and I want to thank them all," said Sagan. "I hope today's win gives an answer to all the fans who had criticised me and the team on the internet. Now the pressure is off."

A day before the eighth stage takes the peloton into the Pyrenees, a combination of the climbs on stage seven and the pace in the peloton proved too much for sprinters Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel.