There may still be five stages remaining at the 2018 Tour de France, but Peter Sagan already holds an unassailable lead in the points classification and only needs to cross the line in Paris to win his sixth green jersey.
At the start of stage 16 Sagan had picked up 452 points at intermediate sprints and stage finishes, 282 points more than his nearest rival Alexander Kristoff on 170 points.
After the rest day in Carcassonne on Monday, there were 290 points remaining to be won on the road to Paris, 190 points at stage finishes and 100 points at the intermediate sprints.
That meant that in order to win the green jersey Kristoff not only had to win all six of the remaining stages – including the three mountain stages and the time trial – and hope that Sagan couldn’t even manage a seventh place at an intermediate sprint along the way.
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Unfortunately for Kristoff, that unlikely turn of events did not come to pass and came crashing down at the first hurdle as the European champion didn’t make it into the day’s break on stage 16 with the points a the day’s intermediate sprint picked up by Christophe Laporte.
With those points swept up and Sagan still leading the points classification by 282 points with 270 points still remaining to be won in the race, the Slovakian will now keep the green jersey all the way to Paris where he will stand on the podium so long as he stays upright and out of trouble.
Providing he finishes in Paris, Sagan will match Erik Zabel’s record of six Tour de France green jerseys which the German won over six consecutive years between 1996 and 2001.
Sagan had the chance to win his six green jerseys in six consecutive years in 2017, but found his challenge ended with disqualification from the race following a clash with Mark Cavendish on stage four.
