Tour de France: Sagan opens Tour account

The Slovakian had clocked up three second-place finishes in the opening six stages, but from early on there seemed little doubt he would cross the line first as his team-mates set a furious pace to leave his green jersey rivals trailing in their wake.

Mark Cavendish was one of several sprinters - along with stage six winner Andre Greipel, Marcel Kittel, and Matt Goss - dropped on the second of four climbs on the day before giving up the chase in the final 50 kilometres.

As the race heads towards the Pyrenees this weekend, Friday's stage and its four categorised climbs favoured Sagan given his superior all-round ability compared to the other sprinters.

But the manner and the extent to which they were left for dead sent out a clear signal from Cannondale that Sagan intends to defend the green jersey he won last year.

"This was a show of how strong we are as a team," said Sagan, who equated his team's efforts with a 160km lead-out train.

"All of our riders were committed to one thing and everyone trusts me now and they are prepared to work hard for me because they know that I want to do well."

John Degenkolb was still there at the finish to at least give Sagan something to think about, but he was comfortably beaten into second ahead of Team Saxo-Tinkoff's Daniele Bennati.

With his rivals left down the road, Sagan took both the intermediate sprint and the win to open up a huge gap in the points classification, where he has 224 points to Greipel's 130, with Cavendish on 119.

Cannondale initially appeared to sit up after the intermediate sprint potentially giving Cavendish and company the chance to get back, but the respite did not last long.

"I had said, 'We'll pull only until we get to the intermediate sprint and then we'll take it easy ...' I thought maybe another team would take over and lead through to the finish," Sagan said.

"My team-mates didn't understand why. They came to me and said, 'But we can continue to ride! Why should we sit up now and wait for the sprinters?'

"And then they went back to the front and worked very, very well."

Cavendish had ended Thursday's stage in Montpellier furious after crashing late on and only managing fourth place in the sprint finish, but he was more sanguine today after crossing the line in the group 14 minutes and 53 seconds behind Sagan.

"I was dropped on the climb and there was nothing I could do," he said.

"It was difficult. But there are still a lot of sprint stages, especially the last one up the Champs Elysees."

Daryl Impey, who had became the first African to wear the yellow jersey, will have it for at least one more day after crossing the line 12th, his Orica GreenEdge team having been tucked up behind Cannondale almost all the way to protect the maillot jaune.

The jersey was briefly under threat towards the end when Jan Bakelants, who began the day 33 seconds back, went up the road in a three-man breakaway similar to the one which saw him score a shock victory on stage two, but the others had learned their lesson and he was hauled in 2.8km from the end.

"I felt like I was floating out there today," Impey said of his first day in yellow.

"It's such a special occasion and Cannondale really put the pressure on us today - they put pressure on everyone - so they deserved that victory."

Impey leads the general classification from Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen by three seconds, with Chris Froome remaining seventh, eight seconds back, although Saturday's stage to Ax 3 Domaines - featuring the first hors categorie climb of the Tour - should change the GC picture significantly.

The day began with veteran Jens Voigt, riding in his 16th Tour de France at the age of 41, part of an early break alongside Blel Kadri and they built a lead of more than four minutes to crest the first two categorised climbs of the day before being caught - with Kadri doing enough to take the King of the Mountain's polka-dot jersey from Pierre Rolland.

While Voigts took a starring role in the early part of the stage, another veteran made a premature departure with Garmin-Sharp's Christian Vande Velde, who plans to retire at the end of the season, forced to withdraw after suffering a second crash in three days.

The 37-year-old, who finished fourth overall in 2008, had already suffered a blood clot in a neck muscle and a loosened screw in his clavicle plate on stage five, and was caught in an early crash.

Leading final positions after Stage 7 (Montpellier - Albi, 205.5km): 1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Cannondale Pro Cycling 4hrs 54mins 12secs, 2 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano, 3 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Team Saxo-Tinkoff, 4 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-Quick Step, 5 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling, 6 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Astana Pro Team, 7 Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack Leopard, 8 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ.fr, 9 Manuele Mori (Ita) Lampre-Merida, 10 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quick Step, 11 Ramunas Navardauskas (Lit) Garmin-Sharp, 12 Daryl Impey (Rsa) Orica-GreenEdge, 13 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team, 14 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) Sojasun, 15 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, 16 Bram Tankink (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team, 17 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing Team, 18 Wouter Poels (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team, 19 Davide Malacarne (Ita) Team Europcar, 20 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale all at same time

Selected others: 23 Christopher Froome (Gbr) Sky Procycling 4hrs 54mins 12secs, 100 David Millar (Gbr) Garmin-Sharp at 1min 24secs, 101 Peter Kennaugh (Gbr) Sky Procycling at same time, 106 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Omega Pharma-Quick Step at 14:53, 173 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Sky Procycling at same time, 178 Ian Stannard (Gbr) Sky Procycling at same time

General classification after Stage 7: 1 Daryl Impey (Rsa) Orica-GreenEdge 27hrs 12mins 29secs, 2 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling at 0.03secs, 3 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge at 0.05, 4 Michael Albasini (Swi) Orica-GreenEdge at same time, 5 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-Quick Step at 0.06, 6 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quick Step at same time, 7 Christopher Froome (Gbr) Sky Procycling at 0.08, 8 Richie Porte (Aus) Sky Procycling at same time, 9 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Saxo-Tinkoff at 0.14, 10 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Team Saxo-Tinkoff at same time, 11 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff, 12 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Saxo-Tinkoff at same time, 13 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin-Sharp at 0.22, 14 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Sharp at same time, 15 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp at same time, 16 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Sharp at same time, 17 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team at 0.25, 18 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team at same time, 19 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team at same time, 20 Andrey Amador Bakkazakova (Cro) Movistar Team at same time

Selected others: 83 Peter Kennaugh (Gbr) Sky Procycling at 16mins 00sec, 91 David Millar (Gbr) Garmin-Sharp at 17:07, 141 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Omega Pharma-Quick Step at 41:43, 166 Ian Stannard (Gbr) Sky Procycling at 51:09, 183 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Sky Procycling at 57:56