He was widely expected to storm to his third straight green jersey but the manner in which Peter Sagan has started this year’s Tour is frightening.

Though he has been repeatedly pipped to stage victories, in the first seven stages he never once finished outside the top five.

And having ensured he always picked up at least something from the intermediate sprint – with Cannondale’s Green Machine moving to the front without fail on each occasion – his lead is now 129 points.

Second-placed Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar) can be pleased with his efforts so far, however, proving himself among the sprinting elite.

The 22-year-old has unashamedly crashed the party at the intermediate point on a handful of occasions and has enjoyed four top-ten finishes despite lead-out man Kevin Reza being given little in the way of road space by their bigger name rivals.

Coquard certainly looks a rider to watch for the future, but as far as the race for the green jersey goes surely only injury will stop Sagan making it three in three years.

Tour de France 2014: points classification after stage ten

1) Peter Sagan (SVK) – Cannondale – 287 pts
2) Bryan Coquard (FRA) – Team Europcar – 156
3) Marcel Kittel (GER) – Giant-Shimano – 146
4) Alexander Kristoff (NOR) – Team Katusha – 117
5) Mark Renshaw (AUS) – Omega Pharma-Quickstep – 101
6) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Belisol – 98
7) Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) – Astana – 95
8) Greg van Avermaet (BEL) – BMC Racing – 87
9) Tony Martin (GER) – Omega Pharma-Quickstep – 76
10) Blel Kadri (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale – 63