Peter Sagan dismisses first stage of Tour de France as 'boring'

Peter Sagan described the opening stage of the 2016 Tour de France as “boring” and was disgruntled by the amount of tension in the peloton.

The Tinkoff world champion rode to third in Utah Beach behind winner Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep).

Yet despite his podium finish, the Slovakian didn’t enjoy the first day of the Tour. Asked for his thoughts on the stage’s proceedings, he said: “Boring.”

His teammate Alberto Contador was one of several riders to crash and although first week nerves are commonplace in the Grand Boucle, Sagan cannot fathom why.

“It was a lot of stress in the group for nothing and then in the final [kilometres] it is always the same riders in the front. I didn’t crash which is more important.”

>>> Five talking points from Tour de France 2016 stage one

Watch the highlights of stage one

On the incident that befell Contador, Sagan commented: “I was a little bit behind him, maybe 20 positions. I saw him on the ground. I didn’t see the crash.

“He has a lot of wounds on the back but I think he will be OK, nothing broken.”

The winner of the last four maillot vert, Sagan is once again expected to retain his grip on the sprint jersey but he hasn’t won at the Tour since stage seven in 2013.

“I am very happy with third place,” he added. “I think this start is OK.”