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Pau (dpa) – The last days he fought hard in the Pyrenees against the time limit – now the trail for sprinter Arnaud Démare has paid off. The French professional cyclist obtained in Pau the long awaited victory of the first day at the 105th Tour de France .
At the finish of the 18th stage, he relegated his compatriot Christophe Laporte to second place. "I worked hard in the mountains, this paid off," said the winner of the Milan Sanremo 2016 on arrival. Britain's Geraint Thomas defended his yellow jersey with confidence.
John Degenkolb, who had speculated with the second stage victory after his triumph on the Roubaix jumpers list, had to settle for seventh place after 171 kilometers. "It was a really hectic finale and we lost our way one way or another," commented Degenkolb on his missed opportunity and thought Sunday at the Tour final on the Champs-Elysees: The legs and do not feel much worse than at the beginning of the tour, so I'm confident for Paris, "said the cyclist Oberursel.
Demare takes advantage of the highly diluted Sprinter's elite field, including Kittel, Greipel, Gaviria and Groenewegen, who left their sails early in the mountains. Marcel Kittel, who retired due to a stoppage of the race on the alpine stage, had won the sprint at Pau last year.
After the spectacular mini-stage of the previous day that cleared Team Sky in favor of Thomas, the Welshman drove the seventh day of the yellow jersey. His lead over the tough final stage of the Friday Pyrenees and the next individual Espelette time trial remains 1h59 minutes on Tom Dumoulin. Froome is third with 32 seconds behind the Dutchman and has to fight for a podium. Only 16 seconds behind the old Slovenian ski jump Primoz Roglic.
How sensitive is the company Toursieg to Thomas? An incident occurred during the last stage of the 17th stage, when an angry spectator had grabbed by his arm and had almost pulled him off the bike. Before the two decisive stages, Thomas said: "I'm expecting the worst, but I hope the best rivals will already have the time trial in mind, and I'm confident Saturday for the national championship against the clock. "
With the winner of the day, retired André Greipel had a small argument via Twitter. He had told the jury not only to have closed their eyes several times on the heavy Pyrenean scene the day before at the limit of Démare. On Thursday, however, Greipel went back and wrote: "think first, then tweet". Greipel's bid had "hurt a lot," says Demare.
Peter Sagan, who had to leave the 2017 Tour after a disqualification, spent a restless night after yesterday's crash. In the morning, however, it was clear that the triple world champion and stage winner could continue. His sixth green jersey is already safe for him – if the Slovak is in Paris.
"I was suffering a lot, but I hope that tomorrow will be better," said the 8th captain of Bora-Hansgrohe on the finish line on Thursday, and in retrospect, he realized: "J & # I was so lucky that it did not happen anymore ", His right arm and his right leg were bandaged. He suffered from severe abrasions. Teammate Marcus Burghardt paid tribute to his boss: "The fact that he sprinted today despite an injury shows what athlete he is."
Itinerary Tour de France 2018
Etappenwertung and appreciation
starting field
List of early failures
Tour de France welcome page with news
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