Listen closely to Matteo Trentin speak English and there are unmistakable hints of Manx in his accent – a bequeathment from his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team-mate Mark Cavendish, with whom he shares a room. The Italian has learned plenty else from Cavendish too, judging by the way he held off Peter Sagan in a tight sprint to win stage seven.
As both men plunged for the line, heads aerodynamically down and pulses raging, it looked too close to call. But the freeze-frame photographs showed that Trentin had triumphed by the width of a ball bearing. “This win is for Cav and for the team,” he said. “We fought for Cav on the first day and since his crash we have kept fighting.”
A year ago Trentin became the first Italian to win a stage of the Tour de France in three years. Now the 24-year-old has decisively ended Omega Pharma-Quick-Step's frustrating week.
But for Sagan the agony lingers. He has finished in the top five on all seven stages, and leads the green jersey standings by a street, yet a stage win eludes him. That the finish sharply contrasted with the early gentility on the road from Epernay to Nancy came as little surprise. At 234.5km the stage was the second-longest of this year’s Tour. Riders needed to ease their way in after the strain and pain of the previous days.
A six-man breakaway led for more than 150km without much undue chasing.
There was just one abandonment on the day – the 20-year-old Danny van Poppel. His withdrawal left Britain’s Simon Yates as the youngest rider left in the Tour. Yates, a 22-year-old from Bury, has quietly chugged away on his first grand tour and sits in 85th of 186 riders.
American Tejay van Garderen, who at 2min 11sec down on general classification was in striking distance of the yellow jersey, was involved in a big crash. Despite pushing desperately hard to make up the time, he lost 1:03 on the stage. Most of the peloton was still together up the final climb of the day, the Cote de Boufflers, but Sagan and Greg van Avermaet were able to attack and get a lead of about seven seconds on the 5.5km descent to Nancy. But the bunch had caught them by the 1km flag.
Briefly, Team Sky’s Richie Porte led on the final straight. Simon Gerrans, hoping to get in contention for the finish, took out Andrew Talansky, who flipped off his bike as if thrown from a bucking bronco.
Afterwards Porte sounded relieved. He remains in seventh position, 1:54 behind Vincenzo Nibali. "It was a long stressful day . . . but I'm glad I got through and that the cross winds didn't materialise," he said, commenting after his team-mate Chris Froome revealed he had suffered fractures to his left wrist and right hand before he quit the race.
Nibali, who retains yellow, knows that his rivals are ready to pounce, starting with today’s stage from Tomblaine to Gerardmer La Mauselaine. Although we will probably have to wait until Monday’s 10th stage, up La Planche des Belles Filles, for the general classification places to get a proper rattling. Guardian service
