Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) wins stage 8 sprint victory, Tour d France.

Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) powers to his second stage win in a row in Amiens, Tour de France. He outsprinted the fading Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and (Quick-Step Floors) Fernando Gaviria.

Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) lost time due to a crash late in the race, moving down the overall standings

Top Ten General Classification standings.

1,Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) BMC Racing Team 32:43:00,
2, Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) Team Sky 0:00:07,
3,Tejay van Garderen (United States of America) BMC Racing Team 0:00:09,
4, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:16
5 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:22,
6, Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:00:49,
7, Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Movistar Team 0:00:55,
8, Rafal Majka (Poland) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:56,
9, Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) Astana Pro Team 0:00:57,
10, Richie Porte (Australia) BMC Racing Team 0:00:57.

Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) sprints to stage 7 victory tour d France.

Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) sprint to stage 7 victory  in Chartres, Tour d France.

Dylan delivered a powerful sprint to beat Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the bunch sprint finish.

How it unfolded

Flat stages on this Tour have tended to follow a set pattern, whereby a break made up of riders from wildcard teams goes in the opening kilometre and then gets pegged back by the sprinters’ teams in the final hour, but that tacit understanding seemed to break down on the Tour’s longest day.

Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) reported for duty when the flag dropped in Fougères and promptly attacked, only to relent once it became apparent that nobody else wanted to come with him. His teammate Thomas Degand soon repeated the same move, building a lead of almost a minute, but knocked off his effort on the instructions of his directeur sportif.

Top Ten General Classification Standings.

1, Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) BMC Racing Team 28:19:25,
2, Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) Team Sky 00:00:06,
3, Tejay van Garderen (United State) BMC Racing Team 00:00:08,
4, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:09,
5, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:15,
6, Bob Jungels (Luxembourg) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:21,
7, Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 00:00:48,
8, Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Movistar Team 00:00:54,
9, Rafal Majka (Poland) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:55,
10, Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) Astana Pro Team 00:00:56.

Daniel Martins (TeamUAE Emirates) wins stage 6 tour d France.

Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) attack's to win stage 6 victory atop Mur de Bretagne, Tour d France.

It has been three years after AG2R La Mondiale denied Dan Martins a stage atop the Mur de Bretagne, the Irishman had his revenge, holding off a late challenge from Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) to secure stage 6 of the Tour d France.

Behind Martin, the battle for the yellow jersey burst into life ahead of the final of two accents up the Mur de Bretagne with Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) suffering mechanicals. The Frenchman lost 31 seconds to his rivals, with the Giro d'Italia runner-up fairing even worse and dropping a further twenty seconds.

Stage 6 General classification

1, Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) BMC Racing Team 22:35:46,
2, Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 00:00:03,
3,Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 00:00:05,
4, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:06,
5, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:12,
6, Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:18,
7, Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 00:00:45,
8, Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Movistar Team 00:00:51,
9, Rafal Majka (Poland) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:52,
10, Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) Astana Pro Team 00:00:53

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) wins stage 5 in Quimper, Tour d France.

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) wins stage 5 uphill sprint battle against Sonny Colbreli (Bahrain -Merida) in Quimper, Tour d France.

Sagan's win has tightened his grip on the green jersey after claiming stage 5 of the Tour de France. and Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) took the stage honours, while (BMC) Greg Van Avermet finish seventh to retain the yellow jersey.

How stage 5 unfolded

An ill Michael Matthews (Sunweb) and an injured Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) were non-starters as the race left Lorient, and the attrition continued as the peloton snaked through the neighbouring town of Ploemeur, where an early crash forced Robert Kiserlovski (Katusha-Alpecin) out of the Tour.

The day's breakaway forged clear soon afterwards, as Sylvain Chavanel, Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie), Jasper De Buyst (Lotto Soudal), Julien Vermote (Dimension Data), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Samsic) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) slipped up the road and established a maximum lead of four minutes.

General classification after stage 5

1, Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) BMC Racing Team18:22:00,
 2, Tejay van Garderen (United States) BMC Racing Team0:00:02,
3, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors0:00:03,
 4, Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) Team Sky0:00:05, 5, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-StepFloors0:00:06,
 6, Bob Jungels (Luxemburg) Quick-Step Floors0:00:09,
 7,Tom Dumoulin (Netherland) Team Sunweb0:00:13,
 8, Søren Kragh Andersen (Denmark) Team Sunweb,
 9, Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale0:00:37,
10, Rafal Majka (Poland) Bora-Hansgrohe0:00:52

Fernando Gaviria (quick -step floors) wins stage 4 sprint tour d France.

Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step) out sprints Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) to nab his second stage victory of this year's Tour d France in  Sarzeau on stage 4.  

While green jersey wearer Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) squeezed up inside to take second as Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) took third after striking out early.

How stage 4 unfolded

After BMC Racing won the stage 3 team time trial, Greg Van Avermaet was keen to start the day in the yellow jersey, perhaps hoping it would be a good omen for the national side ahead of Belgium's clash with France at the FIFA World Cup later in the day.

It was a lengthy neutral zone with the peloton travelling nine kilometres before the flag was finally dropped for racing to begin. Each of the Pro Continental teams had riders getting up close and personal with the race director's car, eager to make it into another breakaway. It would likely be a publicity effort with the peloton targeting a third sprint finish of this year's Tour de France.

Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) finished safely in the peloton retain the yellow jersey.

Top ten General classification standings 

1, Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) BMC Racing Team 13:33:56,
2, Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team,
3, Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 00:00:03,
4, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:05,
5, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:07,
6, Bob Jungels (Luxemburg) Quick-Step Floors,
7, Tom Dumoulin (Netherland) Team Sunweb 00:00:11,
8, Søren Kragh Andersen (Denmark) Team Sunweb,
9, Michael Matthews (Australia) Team Sunweb,
10, Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale

Team bmc racing wins tour d France stage 3 team time trial in cholet,france.

Team BMC racing powers to emphatic stag 3 team time trial victory in Le Cholet, Tour d France. After toppling Team Sky and Quick-Step Floors to propel Greg Van Avermet into the maillot jaune.

 His teammate Tejay van Garderen finished on the same time to take second place overall, with Sky's Geraint Thomas third in the general classifications at three seconds.

How it unfolded

Bright sunshine and a light breeze greeted the teams as they lined up for the 35.5km team time trial in Cholet. Mitchelton-Scott were the first squad to take to the course, and although they were the obvious fastest first time, they also topped Team Sky and BMC at the early check on the course. The latter two squads were locked at one second behind the Australian team, but Sky began to pull away in the second half of the course.

More boos from the spectators dogged Team Sky as they drove an aggressive pace along the course, one that distanced first Luke Rowe and then Wout Poels. The remaining six stayed together to the finish, with Michal Kwiatkowski and Froome leading to the line to top Mitchelton-Scott by just under five seconds.

Top Ten General Classification

1, Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) BMC Racing Team9:08:55,
2, Tejay van Garderen (United States) BMC Racing Team,
3, Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) Team Sky0:00:03,
4, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors0:00:05,
5, Bob Jungels (Luxembourg) Quick-Step Floors0:00:07,
6, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors,
 7, Tom Dumoulin (Netherland) Team Sunweb0:00:11,
8, Søren Kragh Andersen (Denmark) Team Sunweb,
 9, Michael Matthews (Australia) Team Sunweb,
10, Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale0:00:35.

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) wins stage two tour the France.

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) wins crash finale stage 2 of tour d France in La Roche-sur-Yon, Sagan stage win nets him the yellow jersey and overrall lead in the general classification. A fast-finishing Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) was second, while Arnaud Demaré (Groupama-FDJ) completed the podium.

How it unfolded 

The second stage of the 2018 Tour de France was another flat one, again with just one category four climb on the route — the Côte de Pouzauges (1km at 3.9 per cent) just 28km into the 182.5km stage.

It was another stage in Vendée department, headed from Mouilleron Saint-Germain to La Roche-sur-Yon, with the day’s intermediate sprint coming at 132.5km, and the bonification sprint at 168.5km. A tight right-hander followed by a long, sweeping right onto the finishing straight made up the obstacles in the final 2km of the stage.

Top Ten General classification 

1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 8:29:53
2 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:06
3 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:10
4 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:12
5 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Direct Energie 0:00:13
6 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:14
7 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:15
8 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale
9 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:16
10 John Degenkolb (Ger) Trek-Segafredo