Sam Bennett and Peter Sagan may have been fighting for stage wins and the green jersey in recent days on the Tour de France but today turned into a fight for survival.
The 191.5km stage finishing at the Le Puy Mary was uphill for most of the last 30km and the final ramps up to the finish line were the steepest.
Sam Bennett went into the stage with a win in the bag and a huge lead in the green jersey competition but he faced a real fight to make it to the finish today, aided by three Deceuninck-QuickStep team mates.
He finished last man on the stage and in the company of Dries Devenyns, Michael Mørkøv and Tim Declercq; the latter having a low-key, and slow motion, survival celebration with Bennett as they crossed the line 34 minutes down on stage winner Daniel Martinez (EF Pro Cycling).
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Bennett was seen to yo-yo off the back of the peloton in the early part of the stage; losing contact and getting back on repeatedly. The elastic snapped later in the day and it was just him and his three team mates left to get up the final climb inside the time limit.
As a breakaway was up the road for the intermediate sprint and mopped up all of the points, neither Bennett nor Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) scored any points at that point.
At the end of today's stage Bennett's lead in that competition is still a huge one; with 252 points compared to Sagan's 186 points.
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Tomorrow's stage is a dangerous one for Bennett in his fight with Sagan; the intermediate sprint coming after a cat 4 climb early in the stage.
There follows cat 3 and cat 4 climbs later in the day followed by two cat 4 climbs just before the finish in Lyon after 194km.
It looks like a stage that Sagan could handle better than Bennett, though if the Irishman can score points at the intermediate sprints that would give him confidence for the remainder of the stage.
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