Peter Sagan

Slovakia’s Peter Sagan celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the second stage of the 105th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Mouilleron-Saint-Germain and La Roche-sur-Yon, western France, on July 8, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Marco BERTORELLO / ALTERNATIVE CROP

Tour de France 2018 Stage Five: Sagan blasts to second stage win

Sagan snatches second stage win after uphill sprint.

Peter Sagan

Slovakia’s Peter Sagan celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the second stage of the 105th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Mouilleron-Saint-Germain and La Roche-sur-Yon, western France, on July 8, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Marco BERTORELLO / ALTERNATIVE CROP

Peter Sagan overpowered Sonny Colbrelli in a breathless uphill sprint into Quimper on stage five of the 2018 Tour de France.

Philippe Gilbert’s late blast teed up the sprint to the line, with yellow jersey Greg van Avermaet fading to seventh.

It was a day on which the main contenders stayed safe, although not without a bit of fun and games up the front along the way.

Sylvain Chavanel made a cheeky break for it from the main breakaway group on the way, not only boosting his King of The Mountains credentials but staying clear until 61km to go.

It was a move that caused few shockwaves, though.

Direct Energie team-mate Lilian Calmejan and Toms Skujins always had the job in hand.

The pair did the bulk of the work to real Chavanel in, with the veteran dropping back into the peloton with fellow escapee Nicolas Edet in the closing stages.

Mark Cavendish, meanwhile, was concentrating on nothing more than grim survival.

The Manx Missile fell out the back of the peloton twice as the climbs kicked in, clinging on to finish within the time limit.

It caps a difficult start to le Tour for the sprint star and his South African Dimension Data team.

Rein Taaramae continued the aggressive theme for Direct Energie with a burst from the peleton in the last 10km.

He was soon reeled in by Team Sky though, in their protection of reigning champion Chris Froome.

Van Avermaet retains his yellow jersey ahead of stage six on Thursday, with a two-second advantage over Tejay van Garderen.

More climbing will be the order of the day on the run from Brest to Mur-de-Bretagne Guerledan.

Tour de France 2018: Classification after Stage 5

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General (Yellow jersey)

Green Jersey

Team

Young rider

King of the Mountains

Dion Smith