We speculated earlier in the race on what Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) must do to claim a stage win, and we are still scratching our heads now.

It seemed to be set-up perfectly for Sagan as he found Greg van Avermaet’s wheel on the uphill part of the finish straight, and readied himself to burst round him.

But the kick never came, the Slovakian champion either misjudging the finish line or just running out of gas – the former appearing more likely after he admitted to a ‘stupid mistake’.

“I’m not sad, I’m pissed [off],” he told reporters afterwards. And it is easy to see why if he has cost himself the chance of a fifth Tour stage victory – and first since 2013 – because of an error of judgement.

Sagan now has four second-place finishes at this year’s Tour de France and time is running out for him to end his incredible run of near-misses.

This was the perfect stage for him, but there is the consolation at least of the green jersey, and an extended lead atop that points classification – after being provisionally dethroned at the earlier intermediate sprint.

Sagan now leads Andre Greipel by 24 points, with John Degenkolb – another who may feel he could have done better after Giant-Alpecin set the tempo all day – by 57.

A fourth straight green jersey is starting to look increasingly likely, but the stage win is what he most wants – and the time for that is quickly ticking away again.

Tour de France 2015: points classification

1) Peter Sagan (SVK) – Tinkoff-Saxo – 285pts
2) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Soudal – 261
3) John Degenkolb (GER) – Giant-Alpecin – 228
4) Mark Cavendish (GBR) – Etixx-QuickStep – 192