Mark Cavendish of Etixx Quick Step took the victory on stage seven of the Tour De France.
With Chris Froome in the race leader after Tony Martin, who was successfully operated on for a fractured shoulder this morning, stage seven, a 190.5km stage from Livarot to Fougères got underway without Lotto Soudal’s Greg Henderson who had rib damage sustained in a crash on stage three.
Kristjian Durasek of Lampre, Luis Angel Mate of Cofidis, Anthony Delaplace and Brice Feillu of Bretagne Seche Environment and KOM leader Daniel Teklehaimanot of MTN Qhubeka got straight into a break after Alberto Contador and Robert Gesink has crashed before the riders got to kilometre zero.
Teklehaimnot was in the break as straight away there was a category four climb – the côte de Canapville and the Eitrean was first over the top of the days categorised climb to take the point which keeps him in the polka dot jersey for another day.
Over the climb, the five out front had taken a lead of 2.35 and with thirty kilometres in the bag, the lead went out to 3.50.
With 126.7kms to go, the gap was at 2.40 on a stage which passes not far from where La Manche which will host the Grand Depart of the 2016 race.
Mate took the sprint and the twenty points ahead of Feillu, Delaplace (the most combatitive rider of the day), Durasek and Teklehaimnot at Argentan with John Degenkolb and Peter Sagan, Greipel and Cavendish leading the peloton.
The peloton reduced the gap to a minute with 72 kilometres to go with the speed for the stage at 40.3kmh.
Twelve kilometres later and the work by Teklehaimnot had pushed the lead of the five up front up 1.47.
Going into the final forty kilometres of the stage on a lovely sunny day, on the D33 road, the gap was back down to 43 seconds.
With 31 kilometres left, Daniel Teklehaimnot decided that he had done for his work for the day and let the other four battle on.
Geraint Thomas of Team Sky punctured out just before the 20km to go banner whilst the peloton had the remaining escapers in their sights.
Into the ille et Villaine department and the region of Britanny only Mate and Feillu were left up front They were caught with 11.1kms left and the teams tried to move their sprinters into position.
The high speeds saw some go the wrong way on a roundabout but those left took the next left and it was a sprint between Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan. Cavendish came up on the right and took the win in 4.27.25 ahead of Griepel, Sagan and Degonkolb.
Cavendish said to Ned Boulting: “I wanted it. I had this feeling and I knew today was ok. My team were motivated and incredible. To come out after losing Tony and win like we did is incredible.
I had to back off and I said to Mark I had to leave it late. I went shoulder to shoulder with Sagan and I am so happy with the win.”
Chris Froome leads the race by five seconds from Peter Sagan.