Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) added his third stage win of the 2016 Tour de France Monday in Berne, taking out the bunch sprint from a reduced group ahead of Katusha's Alexander Kristoff. The stage decision came down to the finish photo, as Sagan won by a tyre width with a perfectly timed bike throw as Kristoff hesitated.
The 206km stage from Moirans-en-Montagne to Berne, Switzerland, was on of the longest of the Tour, but the flat parcours didn't offer much in the form of challenges to break up the bunch. A short cobbled climb in the closing kilometres nixed the chances for the pure sprinters, leaving all-rounders like Sagan and Kristoff to battle for the win.
Etixx-QuickStep teammates Tony Martin and Julian Alaphilippe decided to make the peloton work hard before the second rest day of the Tour, taking off after 10 hard opening kilometres of racing for a two-man time trial. Three-time UCI time trial world champion Martin supplied most of the power to the breakaway, holding off a four-rider chase and the peloton until just before 20km to go.
Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) then tried his luck with a solo move, but he was swept up with 4km to go as the sprinters' teams closed in on the finish for their fast men.
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