Victory of the day for Démare – calm day for leader Thomas

Stand: 18:18 | Reading time: 3 minutes

P at (dpa) – Last sprint stage of the Tour de France this year before Sunday's final in Paris, Arnaud Démare no. did not give up.

The Frenchman wins the victory of the day of the 18th stage of the mbad sprint in front of his compatriot Christophe Laporte and the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff.

John Degenkolb, author of his second stage victory after his triumph on the Roubaix track had speculated, had to settle for seventh place after 171 kilometers. Britain's Geraint Thomas defended his yellow jersey with confidence.

"I had no chance to take the lead today.It was a totally eventful finale, and we got lost in one way or another Started, which celebrated its first victory this year, took advantage of the very small peloton of the elite sprinters Kittel, Greipel, Gaviria and Groenewegen for the 105th Tour, had to hit the sails early.Kit Kittel, who retired because of a dead time on the alpine stage, had won the stage at Pau last year.

After the spectacular mini – stage of the day before, the Welsh sky team on the seventh day in the yellow jersey.His advance on the difficult last stage of the Pyrenees on Friday and the following individual time trial of Espelette remains 1h59 minutes on Tom Dumoulin.Froome is third with 32 seconds behind the Dutchman and has to fight for a place on the podium.

The sensitivity of the podium. Thomas' company Toursieg was revealed in the last climb of the 17th stage, when an angry spectator grabbed him by the arm.

With the winner of the day, the very old retiree André Greipel had delivered a little jostling via Twitter. He had accused the jury of turning a blind eye to Démare the day before on the difficult stage of the Pyrenees. On Thursday, however, Greipel rowed back

A group of five people had formed early in the day, but he was unable to significantly increase his lead. At the top of the pack, the remaining Sprinter teams had a good pace. But 18 kilometers before Pau, the escaped were exceeded.

Peter Sagan, who had to leave the 2017 Tour after a disqualification, spent a restless night after yesterday's crash. In the morning, it was clear that the triple world champion and stage winner could continue. He already knows his sixth green jersey – if the Slovak can hold in Paris.

"I have back pain and all the right side, but I want to finish the tour," said Bora-Hansgrohe's captain at Trie. -On-bad explains. His right arm and right leg were bandaged. He suffered from severe abrasions. After all, he still ranks eighth.

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