Peter Sagan won stage seven of the 100th Tour de France in Albi today to extend his lead over Mark Cavendish in the points classification.

The Slovakian, who had finished second three times already in this Tour, tasted victory after an outstanding performance from his Cannondale team, who forced the pace of the peloton for much of the day to drop his major sprint rivals early in the stage.

The peloton chased down the last of the day’s attacks – led by Jan Bakelants who took the yellow jersey after making a similar late break stick on stage two of this Tour – with 2.8km of the 205km from Montpellier remaining, and Sagan beat John Degenkolb to the line with Team Saxo-Tinkoff’s Daniele Bennati third.

Darly Impey was close behind to ensure the South African retains the yellow jersey for another day.

Nicolas Roche was placed 33rd and Dan Martin 56th in the bunch sprint to the line. Roche remains in ninth overall, with Mrtin moving up one place to 15th.