Fougères, France – BMC Racing Team’s Tejay van Garderen stayed third overall Friday at the Tour de France while teammate Greg Van Avermaet moved from sixth to fifth following the non-start due to injury of previous race leader Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step).
Van Garderen is 13 seconds behind new race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) and two seconds behind Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), who slotted into second overall on the strength of a time bonus for finishing third on the stage.
Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step) won Friday’s 190.5-kilometer race ahead of André Greipel (Lotto Soudal). Van Avermaet was 25th and van Garderen finished 36th, both in the same time as the stage winner.
“There were a lot of narrow roads out there, but the wind and the weather was not so bad,” van Garderen said. “In the last 50 kilometers or so, on some of those narrow roads, we started feeling a little bit of the nerves. But compared to the other days, today was pretty tranquil.”
Saturday’s 181.5-km stage finishes atop the Mûr-de-Bretagne, a third-category climb of two kilometers.
“We did this stage back in 2011 and it was pretty hectic all day,” van Garderen said. “So I expect tomorrow to be more of what we have seen earlier in the week.”
