Peter Sagan of Liquigas took his third stage win in his first Tour de France as a series of crashes sidelined several riders and all but eliminated some top contenders.
André Greipel finished second. The Lotto rider crashed twice; blood was streaming down his leg as he tried to sprint against Sagan. Greipel also injured his shoulder a hand.
Orica-GreenEdge’s Matt Goss avoided all the wrecks to finish third. Garmin-Sharp’s Tyler Farrar didn’t even contest the sprint due to crash damage.
The day’s biggest pileup came 24 km from the finish where two dozen riders collided on a perfectly straight road. General Classification contenders Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin and Frank Schleck of RadioShack both lost too much time to make up. Tom Danielson, Mikel Astarloza and Wouter Poels all had to abandon.
The drama of the repeated crashes was balanced by the excellent attack of four riders led by Garmin-Sharp’s Dave Zabriskie: the seven-time American time trial champion escaped first, soon followed by Davide Malacarne (Europcar,) Romain Zingle (Cofidis,) and Karsten Kroon (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank.)
Three stayed away ununti 2500 meters out; then Zabriskie attacked as they others faltered and were caught. The Garmin rider lasted to the final 1200 meters before he too was swept up by the peloton.
Lotto again assembled their perfect leadout for André Greipel but the big man was too hurt to give his best. Sagan stayed on Greipel’s wheel, cut left when the Lotto rider launched, and powered past to win by a length.
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