After three second places and a third, Peter Sagan got his first win in the 100th Tour De France when he rode to victory in the seventh stage in Albi.
Stage seven was to be an exceeding lumpy stage from Montpellier, acouple of hundred kilometres from the Spanish border to Albi, a town named at the 2012 Most Sporting Town in France by L'Equipe. and one that attracts around 800,000 a year visitors.
The 205.5km stage had four categorised climbs in the at the col des 13 Vents (cat-3 at 80km), col de la Croix de Mounis (cat-2 at 94.5km), cote de la Quintaine (cat-3 at 149km), and the cote de Teillet (cat-4 at 171km) with the sprint in Viane Pierre Ségade at the 135km mark.
190 riders started the stage which saw six riders in Lotto Belisol'sSep Vanmarcke, Radio Shack's Jens Voigt in his 16th Tour De France, Astana's Gasparotto, Euskatel's Perez, Cofidis' El Fares and Blel Kadri of AG2R the first to try and escape the peloton which had South African Darryl Impey in yellow.
They were soon caught before a fall after 11kms took down a number of riders including Edvald Boasson Hagen who is second in the General Classification behind Impey.
Father of the peloton Jens Voigt and Blel Kadri did get away after Garmin's Christian Vande Valde had abandoned after Janez Brajkovic had not started the stage. The pair got 6.50 clear before they started to be reeled back in.
With a lead of 4.09, Kadri took the point on the first climb at col des 13 Vents.as the duo move off the D13 road heading for the D922 at Andabre.
The col de la Croix de Mounis was up next with 111kms remaining and Kadri took the maximum five points on the 10% summit to go into the lead of the King Of The Mountains jersey by a point from Pierre Rolland.
The Peloton were less than two minutes behind Kadri and Voigt but Mark Cavendish had dropped back into a gruppo which was a further minute behind.
After Adriano Malori of Lampre had abandoned, Voigt dropped back to the peloton leaving Kadri out on his own before he too was caught.
Cannondale's Peter Sagan took the main points in the intermediate sprint at Viane Pierre Ségade ahead of Flecha.
Radio Shack's Jan Bakelants, Cyril Gautier and José Oroz of Euskatel were the next to attack and Bakelandts, who was now the virtual leader on the road, took the two points on the cote de la Quintaine and Kadri made sure of his place on the tonight's podium on the the cote de Teillet climb after Bakelandts had taken the single available point.
With the Cavendish and Greipel group over eleven minutes down on the main peloton who were 24 seconds behind the front three, going into the final ten kilometres.
Five kilometres later and the the trio were still away but the first group led by Cannondale were breathing down their necks.
Today's finish line was on the Albert Thomas at the end of a 1400m straight and it was a bunch sprint. Suddenly, out of nowhere, came Points leader Peter Sagan, who had been brought up by his team and he won in a time 4.54.12 ahead of John Degenkolb, Daniel Bennati, Cimolai and Boasson Hagen.
Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) keeps his overall lead, some three seconds ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen and five seconds ahead of team mate Simon Gerrans. Chris Froome is eight seconds back and Nicholas Roce fourteen seconds back.
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