Sagan happy with picture perfect finish as Froome maintains his Tour lead
Peter Sagan won stage 16 of the Tour de France in a photo finish ahead of Alexander Kristoff while Chris Froome stayed safe in the yellow jersey.
After 209km from Moirans-en-Montagne to Berne, stage honours were settled by a matter of inches as World champion Sagan claimed his third stage victory of this Tour and the seventh of his career.
It was so close, the Slovakian thought he had finished second - for what would have been the 18th time in his career on the Tour - until his team gave him the good news.
"I was not waiting for the results, I thought I was second until they came and told me I had won," Sagan said. "It's unbelievable. After so many times finishing second, the wheel turns."
Team Sky's Froome was in the leading pack, coming in 13th, as he and his rivals finished on the same time to maintain the status quo in the general classification heading into today's rest day.
Froome leads by one minute and 47 seconds from Trek-Segafredo's Bauke Mollema. Briton Adam Yates of Orica-BikeExchange is third, two minutes and 45 seconds back and leading the young riders' classification, with Movistar's Nairo Quintana fourth, a further 14 seconds down.
Froome said: "The main thing for me and Team Sky was to get me to the finish line in one piece and hopefully not taking any kind of time gaps to my rivals.
"It's another day we can tick off and everyone is pretty grateful we've got a rest day tomorrow.
"We'll soak that up and look forward to the Alps in the next few days."
Belfast Telegraph
