PARIS, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Slovakian Peter Sagan withstood a minor technical error in the final sprint to bag his eighth stage victory of career at the 2017 Tour de France third stage on Monday.
British Geraint Thomas, who finished eighth in the stage, kept the yellow jersey with a 12-second advantage over his Sky teammate Christopher Froome.
With several hundred meters remaining in the 212.5km third stage, Sagan's right foot went unclipped off the pedal, but he cooly dealt with it and lost no speed in crossing the line.
"I was thinking, 'what's going on?'" recalled the Bora-Hansgrohe racer Sagan, currently ranked fourth on overall individual standings.
Starting from Verviers, Belgium, the third stage witnessed a six-member group break away 13 kilometers into the race. The group maintained a two-minute lead away from the petolon.
Nils Politt in the group crossed the line located in Wincrange, Luxemburg around 89km in the first position to snatch 20 points for the sprinting green jersey.
France's Liliane Calmejane, last member of the six, got reeled with 10km to go.
Richie Porte, highly regarded as a main contender for the yellow jersey, stood out with 800m left, only to run out his momentum and see Sagan win the stage in Longwy, France despite the tricky slip.
Sagan took 36 points on Monday for the best sprinter as he went through the 1.6km long uphill finish, and a total of 50 points dragged him back into the contention for his sixth straight sprinting green jersey, now owned by German Marcel Kittel with 66 points.
After taking away three points for the best climbers, Nathan Brown won the polkadot king of the mountains jersey from his Cannondale Drapac teammate and fellow American Taylor Phinney at the stage featuring two third-category and three fourth-category climbs.
The best young racer belonged to Pierre-Roger Latour. Thanks to glittering performance from Thomas and Froome, Team Sky ranked first on overall team standings with an advantage of one minute and one second.
Tuesday's fourth stage, starting from Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxembourg to Vittel, France, will cover 207.5km with a fourth-category climb.
