Tour de France 2020: How Sagan and Bora exploited crosswinds to drop Bennett and take back green

Peter Sagan and Bora-Hansgrohe took advantage of windy conditions to seize back control of the points classification standings in Stage 7 of the Tour de France.

Lumpy terrain and the added complication of crosswinds gave the opportunity for a significant split in the peloton early in the day’s racing, and Sagan took full advantage to split the group and distance his green jersey rival Sam Bennett as Bora set a fearsome pace which left the sprinters' teams unable to keep up.

It was a development that the Irishman had semi-predicted, telling Eurosport’s Ashley House that an early attack by Bora would be his biggest threat on the day:

“If Bora get up the road early and we don’t make it there for a bunch sprint (that’s the danger),” he said. “But we’ll just have to see how the stage goes.”

Bennett’s Deceuninck-Quickstep team-mate Julian Alaphilippe made it into the front group, where he showed his displeasure at what he perceived to be drafting by the television motorbike that could have aided Bora’s big attack.

But Eurosport’s Sean Kelly, the last Irishman to wear the green jersey at the Tour back in 1981, says that the blame for being dropped is squarely on Bennett.

“Sam Bennett can get up over the lumpy stuff very well so I’m very surprised that he didn’t make it into the leading group,” Kelly said. "He’s pretty close to Sagan in this terrain.

“Sam had to be close to Sagan early on in the stage, because we know what type of rider Sagan is, he’s always trying to get into the breaks and get up the road to pick up the intermediate sprint points for the green jersey.”

As it happened, Sagan failed to win the intermediate sprint, with Matteo Trentin taking maximum points. However, the Slovakian’s second place was enough to move him into the virtual green with more points up for grabs at the end of the stage.

Crosswinds are a fascinating element of professional cycling and are difficult to manage. However, if handled correctly they can lead to significant time gains, as this Eurosport video explains: