Bora keep pressure on green jersey Bennett

GC favourites affected by hard-fought points battle, reports Peter Cossins

- Peter Cossins

The contest for the green jersey is always one of the Tour de France’s sub-plots but in recent years one that has quickly lost a good deal of its intrigue because of Peter Sagan’s absolute domination of the competition. Since the Slovak’s first success in 2012, the only time he’s lost his grip on green was in 2017 when he was disqualified from the race for putting Mark Cavendish into the barriers.

By contrast, this year’s duel with Irishman Sam Bennett has been so intensely fought that it has even had a significant impact on the fight for the yellow jersey. As Bennett has had the edge over Sagan in the intermediate and bunch sprints on the comparatively more straightforward stages, the Slovak’s Bora-Hansgrohe team endeavoured to shake the Irishman out of the peloton at every opportunity with the aim of enabling Sagan to reduce his deficit on the Irishman.