Cannondale delivered a true masterpiece in today's seventh stage of the Tour de France as the Italian team upped the tempo on the early climbs and left all the pure sprinters behind. Impressive strength allowed the team to keep the fastest finishers at bay over a 113km stretch, allowing team captain Peter Sagan to take a convincing win while Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) defended his yellow jersey ahead of the first Pyrenean stage.

The Cannondale team has been heavily criticized for its apparent lack of ability to support Peter Sagan but today the team proved all the pundits wrong as the team put in an excellent performance in the seventh stage of the Tour de France. In the end, the Slovakian captain did not let his team down, easily outsprinting John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) and Daniele Bennati (Saxo-Tinkoff) to finally take a long overdue first stage win in this year's Tour and extend his lead in the points classification.

From the gun, Sep Vanmarcke (Belkin) attacked and he was joined by Jens Voigt (Radioshack), Blel Kadri (Ag2r), Enrico Gasparotto (Astana), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel) and Julie El Fares (Sojasun)  in what was today's first escape. The group was, however, to strong for the sprints teams and so they chased it down immediately.

Voigt and Kadri refused to give up and so they attacked again. A big crash brought down the likes of Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Daniel Moreno (Katusha), Michael Schär (BMC) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin) and that allowed the front duo to get the all-clear to move ahead. Unfortunately, Vande Velde who had already crashed in stage 5, had to abandon the race a few moments later.

Voigt and Kadri were allowed to build a gap of a little more than 6 minutes before Orica-GreenEdge and Omega Pharma-Quick Step started to control the pace. They were later joined by Cannondale, Argos-Shimano and Lotto-Belisol who had all confidence in their sprinters in today's hilly stage.

As they started the day's first climb, the gap was down to less than 5 minutes and Jerome Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Johannes Fröhlinger (Argos-Shimano) and Bart De Clercq led the peloton onto the lower slopes. The gap came steadily down while Kadri was allowed to take maximum points on the climb.

All was going to plan for the sprinters but that all changed when they hit the day's hardest climb, the category 2 Col de la Croiz de Mounis. From the bottom, Cannondale hit the front and Brian Vandborg set a hard pace that immediately troubled riders at the back of the peloton.

As Moreno Moser and Alessandro De Marchi further upped the pace, more riders dropped off and the first notable victim was Mark Cavendish. The Omega Pharma-Quick Step sprinter was assisted by teammates Pineau, Matteo Trentin, Gert Steegmans and Niki Terpstra as he tried to limit his losses.

A little further up the road, another big group with Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol), Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) and Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) had formed and also lost time to the Cannondale-led peloton. Up ahead, Kadri took 5 points to move himself virtually into the lead in the mountains classification.

Current leader Pierre Rolland was unwilling to let that happen and so he attacked a little later. Kadri's teammate Romain Bardet joined him and managed to beat Rolland in the sprint. That tactical maneuver saw Kadri enjoy a 1-point lead over Rolland.

The gap was now down to less than 2 minutes and Cannondale had only lost Vandborg on the climb. Sagan was still supported by Maciej Bodnar, Kristijan Koren, Fabio Sabatini, Alan Marangoni, De Marchi and Moser who all traded turns on the front of the peloton to hold off the two chasing sprint group.

At the top, the Greipel group had lost 1.10 while Cavendish was 3 minutes behind. For a moment, both sprint groups tried to get back on as Argos-Shimano and Lotto-Belisol did all the work in the first and Omega Pharma-Quick Step - who had now also asked Tony Martin to fall back - chased hard in the second.

With 97km to go, the first group decided to wait for the second and the two group merged. The three sprint teams now joined forces in an attempt to reel in the Cannondale-led peloton.

Impressively, the 6 riders from the Italian team lost very little ground and as they reached the site of the day's intermediate sprint, they were still more than 2 minutes ahead of the sprinters. Sagan was only challenged by Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil) for the points and had no problems adding another 20 points to his tally.

At this point, Kadri and Voigt had already been caught but as Cannondale momentarily took a breather to leave the work to the Orica-GreenEdge team of race leader Daryl Impey, Jan Bakelants (Radioshack) took the opportunity to attack. Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel) set off in pursuit and with 64km to go, they bridged the gap to form a front trio.

Cannondale went back to the front but nonetheless the leaders managed to build up a gap of a minute. Behind, the sprint group started to lose time over the day's penultimate climb and at the top, they were 2.10 behind, having seen the gap drop to just 1.45 a little earlier.

Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) had missed the front peloton and so Europcar also started to chase behind. Moments later, they did, however, give up and Omega Pharma-Quick Step did the same. As the gap had passed the 3-minute mark, Greg Henderson moved to the front to ask his teammates to stop their effort and thus it was now clear that the sprinters would not get back.

Instead, the stage evolved into a battle between the front trio and the peloton. Bakelants was only 33 seconds behind Impey on GC and so Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) joined Cannondale on the front of the peloton. Despite the concerted chase effort, the gap kept stable at around 40 seconds for a very long time.

With 20km to go, the riders entered a big, slightly descending road and that saw the gap start to come down. As Orica-GreenEdge also put Simon Clarke on the front, it was clear that it was not to be for the three escapees and with 4km to go, Cannondale had closed the gap.

Cannondale led the peloton up until the flamme rouge while the remaining fast guys started to prepare for the sprint. Argos-Shimano is not all about Kittel as they also have John Degenkolb in their ranks and the German had made the split.

Hence, his teammates Tom Dumoulin and Simon Geschke hid the front inside the final kilometer but were quickly overtaken by Elia Favilli who tried to lead Lampre teammate Manuele Mori out. However, Cannondale once again assumed their position on the front when Fabio Sabatini hit out with Sagan in his wheel.

Degenkolb tried to do a long sprint but Sagan was quick to respond and had no problems powering clear of the big German. Degenkolb narrowly held off Daniele Bennati to take 2nd while Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) finished 4th.

Daryl Impey safely crossed the line in the front group and so defended his yellow jersey. In all likelihood, his time in the spotlight will end tomorrow when the peloton tackles the first big Pyrenean stage with a summit finish in Ax-3-Domaines.

Starting at 14.00, you can follow the drama on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

Result:

1. Peter Sagan 4.54.12

2. John Degenkolb

3. Daniele Bennati

4. Michal Kwiatkowski

5. Edvald Boasson Hagen

6. Francesco Gavazzi

7. Tony Gallopin

8. Arthur Vichot

9. Manuele Mori

10. Sylvain Chavanel

General classification:

1. Daryl Impey 27.12.29

2. Edvald Boasson Hagen +0.03

3. Simon Gerrans +0.05

4. Michael Albasini

5. Michal Kwiatkowski +0.06

6. Sylvain Chavanel

7. Chris Froome +0.08

8. Richie Porte

9. Nicolas Roche +0.14

10. Roman Kreuziger

Points classification:

1. Peter Sagan 224

2. Andre Greipel 130

3. Mark Cavendish 119

4. Alexander Kristoff 111

5. Edvald Boasson Hagen 88

Mountains classification:

1. Blel Kadri 12

2. Pierre Rolland 11

3. Simon Clarke 5

4. Thomas De Gendt 4

5. Jens Voigt 4

Youth classification:

1. Michal Kwiatkowski 27.12.35

2. Andrew Talansky +0.16

3. Nairo Quintana +0.19

4. Tejay Van Garderen +0.25

5. Peter Sagan +0.28

Teams classification:

1. Orica GreenEdge  80.45.40
2. Sky Procycling  +0.08
3. Team Saxo-Tinkoff  +0.19
4. Movistar +0.25

5. Garmin-Sharp +0.27