After two second places at this year’s Tour, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) made it third time lucky as he sprinted to his first career Tour stage victory.
It is in stark contrast to the fortunes of Peter Sagan (Cannondale), who can not buy a stage win for love nor money despite a string of top-ten finishes and a commanding lead in the green jersey.
And Sagan was not the only rider ruing the cruel nature of cycling at the end of another enthralling stage, with David de la Cruz bidding farewell to the race after a puncture caused him to crash while in the break – a broken collar bone ending his first Tour de France prematurely.
Read how the teams and riders reacted to the stage, in our round-up of the best Twitter reaction below.