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The day off at the Tour de France was used by the Slovak cyclist Peter Sagan to treat the injuries that still afflict him after falling from the end of the third stage.
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Sagan has not yet won a stage victory or a podium finish in the current year of the “Old Lady”. Its maximum is two fifth places from the fourth and sixth stages. In addition, in the scoring competition, he is in the eighth place with a distance of almost a hundred points behind the leader Mark Cavendish.
“When I fell, the first impact was on the hip joint. There was a bruise there and I have it stiffened there. We are also working on it with Maroš Hlad to improve it. However, it is slowly loosening and the knee is also getting better day by day,” Peter Sagan told RTVS.
Tuesday’s tenth stage takes place partly in the Alps, but between the hills and has only a slightly undulating character. From the site of the 1992 Albertville Olympic Games, cyclists will move to the city of Valence, where the stage will culminate after 190.7 km. On the route, they will have one ascent of the lowest category, after less than 60 km in Col de Couz with a length of 7.4 km, but only 2.8% on average.
At 82 km in the village of La Placette, there will be a speed bonus, located at the top of the climb with an average of 3.7%. About 40 km before the finish line, the peloton will overcome the unrated Rochefort Samson hill, where teams with the intention of a stage triumph could get rid of their sprint rivals. Then follows only the descent and the plane to the finish.
For various reasons, the great sprinters Tim Merlier, Caleb Ewan, Arnaud Démare and Bryan Coquard do not continue in the race, the universal Mathieu van der Poel, who wore the yellow jersey of the race leader for six days, also gave up prematurely.
In addition, Sagan may also be motivated by the fact that in 2018 he triumphed at the TdF in the stage with the arrival in Valencia, when he defeated Nor Alexander Kristoff, the Frenchman Arnaud Demar and the German John Degenkolb in a mass sprint.
“Did I win in Valencia? I don’t even remember that anymore. I’ll try to confirm it somehow,” Peter Sagan laughed and added what he expects from the tenth stage: “It’s technical, in the end it will lift a bit and the sprint is level. It will definitely be necessary to be in front and fight for the best possible position. And then it’s just about the legs. Although those sprints are more of a lottery at the Tour de France. … “
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