Germany's Andre Greipel beat perennial bridesmaid, Peter Sagan and his compatriot, Marcel Kittel and yesterday's stage winner, Mark Cavendish in a sprint finish through the streets of Montpellier in today's Tour de France stage through the Cote d'Azur.
Kiwi Greg Henderson played a huge part, superbly leading out his Lotto team-mate on the home straight and continue Germany's great day of sport - Greipel's compatriot Sabine Lisicki beat Agnieska Radwanska in a thrilling semifinal in Wimbledon to book her place in Saturday's ladies final.
Sagan's 3rd consecutive top 3 finish means he holds on to the green jersey but South African Daryl Impey now holds the yellow jersey ahead of Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen and previous yellow jersey holder and teammate, Simon Gerrans. It means Orica's recent golden run in France continues.
Further down the table, Jack Bauer has improved his position on the overall leaderboard, he's now 172nd, 38 minutes and 2 seconds behind the leader - he finished 20 seconds behind Greipel and was heavily involved in the sprint finish at the end.
Bauer is doing well at this stage with the retirements just about to start - Belgian's Jurgen van den Broeck retired before today's stage. Getting to the Avenue des Champs-Elysses itself is a huge achievement for anyone riding the Tour de France and Bauer is keeping up well with the leaders and has stayed out of the trouble that has afflicted his teammates like Christian Vande Velde - he sported a big scratch on his back in a photo on Facebook yesterday.
The tour moves west towards Albi and Languedoc-Rosillion. Keep up to date with Jack's progress here.
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