Sagan The Green Machine

Varied first week benefits Slovak in hunt for jersey record

Is there nothing that can stop Peter Sagan winning a record seventh green jersey in the Tour de France? After one of the least ‘sprinty’ opening weeks in years, it would appear not. After stage 10 from Saint-Flour to Albi on Monday, he was 62 points ahead of second-placed Michael Matthews (Sunweb).

Asked last week whether he could take green all the way to Paris, Sagan replied with a dry: “I don’t know, I’m not Copperfield.”

But you don’t need to be much of a fortune teller to make the fairly confident prediction bar disaster (or disqualification…) that the 29-year-old will indeed be wearing the maillot vert in the French capital a week on Sunday.

“It doesn’t look like [he can be beaten] at the moment,” said Aussie sprinter Caleb Ewan. “He’s just always got that advantage on the rest of the pure sprinters that he can get over such hard stages and that’s the thing. For a pure sprinter like me it’s almost impossible to beat him. Even on a fast, flat finish like yesterday [stage seven to Chalon-sur- Soâne] he was still third. He’s always there.”

Ewan’s last point was demonstrated perfectly on stage eight’s hill-fest to Saint-Etienne in the Massif Central; the Aussie himself was dropped on the early climb of the Col de la Croix Pacquet and finished more than 23 minutes behind winner Thomas De Gendt, while Sagan, despite coming unhitched on the final classified climb, clawed his way back to finish at the head of a depleted bunch, just behind Michael Matthews.