Tour de France - Stage 2

Many are hinting at Sagan victory as the profile is built perfect for him,
well everyone expect for the odds makers who list him at 9:1.
Place your bets now that's a great deal!



A 6 man breakaway gets things started today.
And as they survive through the sprint,
the peloton gears up for a sprint for 7th and 9 points.



Well in fact it is no sprint at all!
Sagan just pokes his head out and takes the points.
The other sprinters were caught sleeping at the back of the peloton.



Sylvain Chavanel and Simon Gerrans try an attack with 25kms to go as the breakaway has started infighting but only are a minute up the road.



10kms to go and Vacansoleil does their job and brings everyone back together.



As the climb hits Liquigas is in a perfect position.
Nibali has Sagan on his back wheel and is hammering up the climb!



Nibali is on another level, the other climbers don't have enough time to put in an attack. And even Sagan is struggling to keep up with Vincenzo.



It's a 1-2 double for Liquigas! Nibali 1st and Sagan 2nd!
They just hit the final climb hard and nobody had time to challenge them.



And Peter Sagan slips on green,
now he just has to hold it for 19 more stages.

Tour de France - Stage 3

After a brilliant 2nd yesterday, Sagan will try to match that result
as he goes up against the pure sprinters today.



Looking good green, hopefully he can keep it all the way to Paris.



It's Orica-GreenEdge and Team Sky doing to pace making
as a 8 man morning breakaway slips away.
Looks like Cavendish and Goss are feeling up for the challenge.



The sprint point offers 7 points after the breakaway rides through.
Sagan grabs Goss' wheel but gets boxed in hard core.



As Goss manages to find a gap, he still can't beat
Cavendish who comes out of nowhere to take the 7 points.
Sagan gets no points as he was trapped in the peloton.



Sky does most of the work to bring the breakaway back with 11kms to go.



As the sprint trains line up Sagan has problems finding his train,
he then decides to go over to the Orica-GreenEdge train.



Cavendish has a prefect leadout as Sagan is struggling
after using a lot of energy getting over to follow Goss.



They hit the final turn, Cavendish hits his turbo.
Sagan is slipping down the field.



Mark Cavendish with an easy victory, on his standards.



Sagan finishes 16th and hands over the green jersey to Cavendish.
Not good, but he has a chance for revenge tomorrow on stage 4.

Tour de France - Stage 4

Although most of the spectators are sensing a strong performance
from Peter Sagan on the hills, the book makers consider him as an outside favourite with climbers like Evans and Andy Schleck tipped as potential winners.



It's a 8 man breakaway, including Liquigas rider Damiano Caruso,
that leads us through the sprint point.
So the peloton gets the opportunity to battle it out for 7 points.



And it is really nice tactic, or a really cheap one depending on your opinion, as Sagan and Oss sneak away from the peloton before the sprint point
and easily ride through to get the points available.



Behind them it's Cavendish beat a surprisingly strong Bennati, and then
Romain Feillu, Oscar Freire, and Tyler Farrar take the rest of the points.



As the hills intensify André Greipel finds himself on the pavement,
it's a very hard fall and at the end of the day
finds himself just making it inside the time limit.



Attacks from Evans, Valverde, and both Schlecks
eventually brings the breakaway back with 15kms to go.
And up the final hill the Canadian Ryder Hesjedal puts in the next attack!



Hesjedal has a 30 seconds advantage over the top,
behind Sagan just gets over the climb with the help of Basso.



The race quickly turns into Ryder Vs. the rest of the field.



Westra is starting to worry about losing his yellow jersey.
But the peloton is closing the gap as Nibali is leading the charge with Sagan hooked onto his back wheel. This looks very similar to what happen on stage 2, expect this time they are chasing down Hesjedal.



The finish has a tough uphill kick to the line,
will the Canadian be caught?



No! Ryder Hesjedal shows strong form to claim his first ever TDF stage win.
Nibali comes in 13 seconds later, and then the battle for 3rd goes to Samuel Sánchez in front of croud favourite Thomas Voeckler.



Sagan just couldn't keep up with Nibali and settles for 5th,
but does take the green jersey back from rival Cavendish.