Tour de France Stage 6 analysis: Arnaud Demare rides his luck as ghost of Peter Sagan looms large

ByFelix Lowe

Updated 07/07/2017 at 11:12 GMT

On a day that Peter Sagan and his Bora-Hansgrohe team appealed the Slovakian’s controversial expulsion from the Tour, Frenchman Arnaud Demare tested the patience of the Tour’s race jury – but emerged unscathed after finishing runner-up to the imperious Marcel Kittel.

Soon after Demare zipped past his green jersey rivals at the intermediate sprint in Stage 6 to extend his lead in the points classification, the news dropped that Bora-Hansgrohe had failed in their appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn Sagan’s expulsion from the Tour.

Quite what Bora were hoping CAS would do is anyone’s guess – but surely it didn’t stretch to the reinstating of a rider who had missed the past two stages of the world’s biggest bike race.

The decision by the UCI Commissaires Panel to make an example of Sagan in Vittel and disqualify the world champion on the grounds that he endangered his fellow cyclists – most notably, the shoulder-shanked Mark Cavendish – set an intriguing precedent.

Tour de France

Wiggins: This could just be the start for G - he could win again next year

30/07/2018 at 09:40

Peter Sagan of Slovakia riding for Bora-Hansgrohe and Mark Cavendish of Great Britain riding for Team Dimension Data are involved in a crash near the finish line during stage four of the 2017 Le Tour de France.

Image credit: Eurosport

At the very least, it was a reminder to the remaining sprinters that their actions would be closely scrutinised in the stages to come; at most, it suggested that Sagan’s DQ would not be the last fans would see.

After all, a combative rider like Demare – one not shy of controversy – wouldn’t even have to change the way he rides to merit disqualification. At least, in theory.

Those nonplussed by Sagan’s exclusion have pointed the finger at the French national champion – quite justifiably, it seems – for his role in the incident on Tuesday: not only did Demare’s swerve force Sagan wide in the first place, the FDJ rider also cut right across to clip compatriot Nacer Bouhanni, almost causing another high-speed fall.

It seems that endangering a rival is all right in the eyes of the jury provided you don’t actually knock them down.

Knowing that he and his colleagues would be very much under the microscope in the first post-Vittel sprint at Troyes on Thursday, Demare certainly skated on thin ice.

In scenes reminiscent of Stage 4, Demare assumed the Cavendish role, seeking out a near-invisible gap between Katusha-Alpecin’s Marco Haller and the barriers – giving Alexander Kristoff’s Austrian lead-out man a good shoulder-barge to ensure there was enough space.

An angered Haller gesticulated his displeasure – but Demare was already well on his way to taking second place, which he picked up after apparently darting in front of Edvald Boasson-Hagen – provoking what resembled a shake of the head in disbelief from Cavendish’s Dimension Data team-mate.

John Degenkolb, the German rider who had no option but to plough into Cavendish on Tuesday, had a good view of the incident.

“When you see the final metres, especially the gap Demare went through there – I was too far back to see it directly – but when you see it from the top shot, I think there’s almost no space,” the Trek-Segafredo rider said.

“It’s very, very tight there. He [Demare] actually moved off his line and went through a very, very small gap there. You have to make right decisions, and as long as everything goes OK, there’s no problem, but when it ends up like me and Cav on the ground, then it’s not so good.”

The implication is clear: since neither Haller nor Boasson-Hagen ended up with a broken shoulder, Demare would be given the benefit of the doubt. But a race jury that dishes out punishments only based on outcome, and not actions or motive, seems flawed.

No one wants anyone kicked off the Tour. But a little bit of consistency would be nice.

Given Demare’s manoeuvre on Bouhanni – not just in Vittel, but at the recent French national championships – it was perhaps a bit much for the former’s FDJ team-mate Jacobo Guarnieri to sound off about the latter in an expletive-filled post-stage interview in Troyes.

“Bouhanni is an idiot. He didn’t just pass me, he also put his knee into my bars. He’s a d*ck – he’s always making people crash. We know he’s like that. He’s probably upset with us because he always loses,” Guarnieri ranted – before lauding Demare’s “perfect sprint” and “great form”.

When the Italian later apologised on Twitter, he did so for his language but not for the sentiment of his outburst.

For his part, Bouhanni simply suggested Guarnieri’s comments were a case of the “pot calling the kettle black,” insisting his colleague should re-watch the frenzied finish in Vittel. He has a point - not that he smells of roses, either.

It just goes to show how subjective these high-speed contests are: one can only ride with the blinkers on.

Tour de France Stage 6 finish: Kittel powers to bunch sprint win

Intriguingly, the man who won on Thursday – Quick-Step Floors talisman Marcel Kittel – did so by following the wheel of the one rider only those with a death wish would follow.

“The last kilometre was a little freestyle,” Kittel said after the eleventh Tour stage win of his career – drawing level with compatriot Andre Greipel. “But I had a good wheel from Arnaud Demare and it went perfectly.”

Not many sprinters can say the same thing in this 104th edition of the Tour.

Analysis: Did Peter Sagan deserve to be disqualified?

Tour de France

Dan Martin reveals he broke his back on Stage 9, still finished sixth overall

28/07/2017 at 12:14