Froome '100 per cent' denies doping

Chris Froome faced the inevitable questions about doping at the Tour de France after demolishing his rivals to claim the overall lead and said his results would not come under suspicion in the future.

Briton Froome won Saturday's eighth stage, a 195-km mountain ride from Castres, to lead overall by 51 seconds from Team Sky colleague Richie Porte with Spain's Alejandro Valverde in third place 1:25 off the pace.

His dominant performance was reminiscent of the way the disgraced rider Lance Armstrong would hammer the field in the first mountain stage of the Tour before controlling the rest of the race with often sterling performances in the time trials."I know the sport has changed. There's absolutely no way I'd be able to get these results if the sport had not changed."Results now are definitely a lot more credible. The questions should be asked about people who were winning races maybe five, 10 years ago when we know doping was more prevalent."

While 2012 champion Bradley Wiggins last year lost his cool when grilled about doping and angrily hit out at accusations made on Twitter, Froome remained calm.

"For me it is a bit of a personal mission to show that the sport has changed," he said.

"I certainly know that the results I get are not going to be stripped 10, 20 years down the line. That's not going to happen."

Last year, American Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour titles, won from 1999-2005, for doping and then admitted in a television interview in January he had taken performance-enhancing drugs.

Just as the translator finished saying Froome's words in French, the rider took the microphone again and continued: "Anyone who actually spends a bit of time with the team, with us... see that this is months and months of preparation - going to these training camps in altitude all together, the support off the bike from the sport staff, from my fiancée, this is so much preparation that it's not 'wow', it does add up."

Sagan strengthens hold on green jersey with stage 7 win

Slovakia's Peter Sagan outsprinted John Degenkolb of Germany to take stage seven of the Tour de France and built up a commanding lead in the green jersey competition.

After a series of second-places in the opening week of the race, Sagan finally got a win after a text-book day for his Cannondale team.

Twenty-three-year-old Sagan picked up maximum points at both the intermediate sprint and the finish after his big rivals Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) and Marcel Kittel (Argos Shimano) were all distanced on the second of four categorised climbs, 90km into the undulating 205.5km stage from Montpellier to Albi.

At the finish, Sagan latched onto Degenkolb's wheel before powering clear inside the final 100m to cross the line all smiles while beating his chest in celebration.

Daniele Bennati (Saxo-Tinkoff) took third place ahead of fellow Italian Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida) and Norway's Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky).

South Africa's Daryl Impey of Orica-GreenEdge retained the yellow jersey after finishing safely in the main peloton.

Victory for Sagan saw him extend his lead in the green jersey competition to 94 points over German national champion Greipel, with British champion Cavendish another 11 points in arrears.

Both Cavendish and Greipel came home in a grupetto more than 14 minutes down on the peloton after giving up the chase 45km from the finish, when the gap was still three minutes and showing no signs of coming down.A relieved Sagan was quick to praise his Cannondale colleagues for their role in his first win of the stage. "I'm very happy and I have to thank my team because I couldn't do what I did without them. This victory is for all of the team. I'm very happy because I didn't feel very good after the crash on the first stage but day by day I'm feeling better and now I'm really happy to have my first stage win of this Tour de France."

On another hot day in south France, two riders broke clear shortly after the start, with the race’s oldest rider Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Leopard) joining forces with Blel Kadri (Ag2R-La Mondiale) to carve out a large lead over a peloton disrupted by a large pile-up as the road narrowed over a bridge.

American Christian Vande Velde, riding his last Tour before retiring, was once again caught up in the melee and the 37-year-old Garmin-Sharp rider was forced to bid an early farewell to the Grande Boucle after an accumulation of injuries sustained during an incident-filled opening week.

Riding his 16th consecutive Tour, 41-year-old German Voigt and France’s Kadri held a four-minute gap over the peloton after the first climb of the day, 128km from the finish. Kadri picked up maximum points over the summit, and repeated the feat on the subsequent Cat.2 climb to move into the lead in the polka dot jersey competition.But behind the two escapees, the race was being blown apart by the Cannondale team of Sagan, who threw down the hammer on the Col de la Croix de Mounis to wreak havoc off the pack of the peloton.

The infernal pace of Cannondale saw Sagan’s sprint rivals Cavendish and Greipel – the winners of the previous two stages – as well as stage one winner Kittel and Australian Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) all distanced on the long climb.

A Greipel chasing group came over the summit almost two minutes down on the main pack, while a second Cavendish group came through another minute in arrears. The distanced factions came together on the back of the climb, with Lotto Belisol and OPQS joining forces in the chase ahead of the intermediate sprint.

Sagan picked up a maximum 20 points at the intermediate sprint 70km from the finish ahead of Vacansoleil-DCM’s Juan Antonio Flecha. With Cannondale taking a little breather, Belgium’s Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Leopard) accelerated clear.

The stage two winner and former race leader was joined by France’s Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Spaniard Juanjo Oroz (Euskaltel) in a trio that soon held a one-minute lead over the pack, putting Bakelents into the virtual race lead.

With Orica-GreenEdge coming to the front to help neutralise the threat to Impey’s yellow jersey, the gap back to the chasing group of Cavendish and Greipel increased to three minutes.

Perhaps thinking about the mountains on the horizon, Lotto Belisol and OPQS decided to call off the chase ahead of the final climb of the day. Bakelants led the trio over with a 45-second cushion but the Cannondale-led peloton timed their chase to perfection, sweeping up the leaders with 3km remaining before setting things up for their man Sagan.

With two Argos team-mates at his disposal, Degenkolb at least made the finish a contest – but Sagan had too much strength, and after three second-places on the100th edition of the Tour, the Slovakian was not going to let this chance slip.

Sagan’s victory was the cherry on the cake for Cannondale, who put in a display of tactical brilliance not only to kill off their main rivals but to deliver their man to the line in style. With the exception of one slight wobble on a roundabout on the outskirts of Albi, it was a flawless performance – and better than any collective effort seen so far in the 2013 Tour.

Focus turns from the sprinters to the climbers and GC hopes on Saturday, with the first major summit finish of the race. The 195km stage from Castres to the Pyrenean ski resort of Ax 3 Domaines includes the highest point in the race, the HC Col de Pailheres.

With Sky’s Chris Froome and Saxo-Tinkoff’s Alberto Contador just eight and 14 seconds down on GC respectively, we can expect one of the big race favourites to don the yellow jersey.

Vande Velde abandons Tour

American Christian Vande Velde is out of the Tour de France after being involved in a crash early in the seventh stage.

Organisers said Vande Velde withdrew following a mass pile-up after 11-km.

He was one of Garmin-Sharp's top contenders along with fellow American Andrew Talansky, Irishman Dan Martin and Canadian Ryder Hesjedal.

Vande Velde also sustained a shoulder problem after crashing on Wednesday.

Frank Schleck's firing leaves brother Andy fuming

Andy Schleck has blasted his own RadioShack-Leopard for firing his brother Frank just before a diuretics ban was set to end.

Leopard, the management company of RadioShack, announced on Thursday that Frank would not ride for them again this season – days before his year-long ban was up.

Andy, the youngest of the two, did not hold back in a subsequent interview.

“I can’t really understand the decision. I’m sad and disappointed but I don’t know what to say. Maybe they will use it against me and fire me as well,” Schleck said.

Andy said he believed the decision was not related to Frank’s suspension.

“It wasn’t even anything to do with doping, even the UCI agreed on that,” he said. “But there are other things behind this decision. I don’t think it is anything to do with the suspension.

“To kick him out of the team after 11 months of giving him their support, I just don’t understand it.”

Team manager Luca Guercilena said in Montpellier prior to the stage seven trek to Albi: “He is and always will be his brother, but we have had to apply internal rules.”

The banned Luxembourger ends his suspension on July 14, though his RadioShack contract ran until the end of the current season.

Andy, the 2010 Tour de France winner, has been struggling for form since sustaining a hip injury just over a year ago, but has been looking slightly better recently.

He faces a stern test of his credentials on Saturday when the Tour hits the mountains with the first Pyrenees stage to Ax-3-Domaines.

Greipel wins as Impey moves into yellow

Germany's Andre Greipel sprinted to success in stage six of the Tour de France in Montpellier as Daryl Impey became the first South African to take the leader's yellow jersey.

German national champion Greipel benefited from a textbook lead-out by his Lotto-Belisol train in Montpellier to secure his first win of the 2013 Tour ahead of Slovakia's Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and compatriot Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano).

Britain's Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) finished fourth but had the odds stacked against him after crashing on a roundabout 35km from the finish of the 176.5km stage.

Orica-GreenEdge sprinter Impey made history by leap-frogging team-mate Simon Gerrans at the top of the general classification after Gerrans came home five seconds down following a slight split in the peloton in the final kilometre.

Impey is the first rider from the African continent to wear the fabled maillot jaune of the world's greatest bike race, which this year celebrates its 100th edition.

“It’s a great moment for me and I’m going to wear this jersey with pride and fight to hold on to it,” he said.

Impey leads Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) by three seconds on GC, with team-mates Gerrans and Michael Albasini five seconds down in third and fourth place.

Lotto-Belisol entered the final kilometre of the stage with five men on the front primed to launch Greipel towards the line. Belgium’s Jurgen Roelandts and New Zealander Greg Henderson were the last two to peel back, setting Greipel up perfectly for his 11th win of the season.“Yesterday we struggled to get it right in the final moments but today we got it much better,” said 30-year-old Greipel. “Tactically we got it right. I was in a perfect position and I’m proud of my team-mates.”

Sagan – a triple stage winner from last year – was once again sprightly in the sprint, but the Slovak youngster had to settle for a third runners-up spot in a race in which he has struggled to impose the same kind of authority as he exuded last year.

Stage one winner Kittel finished third ahead of Cavendish, who was forced to fight at the back of the peloton after a heavy crash on the technical roads of Lunel, 35km from the finish.

Greipel moved into second place in the battle for the green jersey after picking up maximum points on stage six, taking the win after already leading the field over the line at the intermediate sprint midway through the stage.

Sagan, the reigning green jersey champion, remains in front with 159 points to Greipel’s 130, with Cavendish in third place on 119.

Under a bright blue sky, 193 riders took to the start in the home town of the painter Paul Cezanne following the overnight withdrawals of Belgium general classification hope Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) and France’s Maxim Bouet (Ag2R-La Mondiale), both of whom were badly injured in the crash that marred Wednesday’s finale in Marseille.

The rider who was thought to have caused the crash, FDJ sprinter Nacer Bouhanni, soldiered on but was dropped by the peloton around 50km into the stage, crossing the summit of the only climb of the day two minutes in arrears and clearly struggling. The French youngster continued alongside his team car for another 20km before calling it a day and withdrawing from his debut Tour.

By this point, the day’s only escapee – Luis Angel Mate of Cofidis – had already had the chance to build up a five-minute lead and see it all evaporate, all in the space of the opening 40km of the stage.

The Spaniard had attacked from kilometre zero, but after not being joined by anyone in the searing early-afternoon heat, Mate sat up and was swallowed back into the pack before the Cat.4 Col de la Vayede.Strong crosswinds coming off the south coast of France meant the stage was a nervous, cagey but fast affair, with the speed so high during the feed zone that the riders were forced to refuel later than expected.

With fears of echelons – or gaps – appearing in the peloton because of the combination of wind and fast pace-setting, the front of the peloton was populated with the teams of all the major race favourites.

The Saxo-Tinkoff outfit of Alberto Contador and the Sky team of Chris Froome were both a permanent fixture on the front, and both riders finished with the main pack to retain their positions on GC. Froome is seventh at eight seconds while Contador is six seconds further back in eleventh place, with the first summit finish looming on the horizon this Saturday.

The nervousness in the peloton on Thursday led to a flurry of crashes, with the likes of Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Janez Brajkovic (Astana) and Cavendish all hitting the deck at different moments.

Both Rodriguez and Cavendish made their way safely back into the peloton, although Brajkovic’s crash with 12km remaining was far more serious and the Slovenian eventually crossed the line more than 10 minutes in arrears.

After a visit to the Tour's mobile hospital, Brajkovic was forced to withdraw from the Tour after the stage - the second Astana rider forced out on Thursday following the earlier withdrawal of Swedish climber Frederik Kessiakoff.

The final five kilometres of the stage saw the peloton still fronted by the teams of the GC favourites in what appeared to be a case of keeping out of trouble.No one seemed willing or perhaps even capable of taking it on after a particularly punishing day of high temperatures and leg-sapping wind. But the Argos-Shimano team of Kittel soon came through to cast the first roll of the dice.

Lotto-Belisol took it as a cue to put their plan into action – and with Cavendish still reeling from that fall, Greipel had the psychological and physical upper hand.

Thursday’s stage seven is an undulating 205.5km ride from Montpellier features four climbs before a flat finish in Albi and could be the perfect opportunity for Sagan to finally get his name on the list of winners in this increasingly intriguing 100th edition of the Tour.

Radioshack to end collaboration with Frank Schleck

Frank Schleck's contract with Radioshack-Leopard will not be renewed in 2014, as the end of the Luxembourg rider's doping ban looms.

Schleck is serving a one-year ban after failing a dope test for the diuretic Xipamide in last year's Tour de France. He has denied knowingly taking a banned substance.

"With the end of Frank Schleck's suspension approaching, Leopard and its partners have assessed the situation in view of a possible renewal of the collaboration with Frank Schleck," the team said in a statement.

"Having finalised this assessment in a broad and objective way, Leopard has decided to not renew the collaboration between Frank Schleck and the Radioshack-Leopard Trek cycling team."

His suspension ends on July 14, while his contract runs until the end of the season.

It was not clear whether Schleck, whose brother Andy rides for Radioshack-Leopard and is on the Tour de France, would ride with the team again.

Injured Van den Broeck pulls out of Tour de France

Belgian rider Jurgen Van den Broeck became the first high-profile casualty of this year's Tour de France when he pulled out injured before the sixth stage, his Lotto-Belisol team said on Thursday.

A spokesman for the team told Reuters by telephone that Van den Broeck, fourth overall in last year's race, sustained a knee injury in a mass pile-up inside the final 200 metres of Wednesday's stage.

More to follow.