in the escapees.

At 50kilometres to go the four leader's advantage had reduced down to just two minutes despite a steady pace for much of the stage.

The main sprint teams began heading to the fore to prepare for the final, with it being one of the few remaining sprint stage left in the tour. With 20kilometres remaining the breakaway was down to three riders who still maintained a one minute 45second advantage.

It was looking like touch and go whether or not the escapees would stay away with the bunch very slowly gaining time back as the road began to run out.

It came down to the final three kilometres when the pace really lifted with ORICA-GreenEDGE, Etixx-Quickstep and Tinkoff dominating the front of the bunch.

A nasty tight corner with just150metres to go proved to be dangerous but also very important for the sprinters.

Richeze entered the corner first with Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) on his wheel and remained in front until the line, with Cort safely around the bend in sixth place to finish in that position on the stage.

Tomorrow the race heads into more mountainous terrain with the general classification still fairly close together.