Van Avermaet relieved baby still waiting

Greg Van Avermaet finally ended his long wait for a major victory by winning the 13th stage of the Tour de France on Friday but then revealed it might never have happened.

The 30-year-old Belgian's wife is expecting a baby and before the Tour began he had said he would probably be leaving before the race reaches the Alps.

The Alps loom on Monday but with a pregnant wife, Van Avermaet had said labour rather than his chances of winning stages would determine when he would be going home.

"I was thinking about this decision I have to make. Me and my team decided to stay a bit longer," he said.

"If I go home I will make sure the team knows. I don't know the date yet.

"I'm still here to support (team leader) Tejay (Van Garderen). It's been a great Tour so far (for BMC) winning three stages already.

"I'll only fly home if something happens. I'm always hearing about the situation at home but for now I'm still at the Tour."

Having already taken fourth, fifth, sixth (twice) and 10th-placed finishes in stages this year, Van Avermaet said it was a relief to finally win one -- his first Grand Tour stage victory since his only other one at the 2008 Vuelta a Espana.

He has been something of a nearly man in major races, especially the Spring Classics, having finished second at the Tour of Flanders and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, third at Paris-Roubaix, Gent-Wevelgem, and E3 Harelbeke, fifth at Amstel Gold and the World Championships, seventh at Liege-Bastogne-Liege and ninth at Milan-San Remo.

- No advice -

Yet although he has finally got that monkey off his back, Peter Sagan remains on his own in terms of recent frustrations with four second places at this year's Tour and nine in total -- amongst 20 top five finishes -- since his last win on stage seven in 2013.

He's also come agonisingly close in the major Spring Classics, coming second at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders and fourth at Paris-Roubaix.

However, Van Avermaet says he has no advice to give the talented 25-year-old Slovak.

"It's hard giving advice because I'm having the same problem a little bit," he said.
"It's really hard to win races like this on such a high level. You just have to keep on trying, keep on working for it.

"He's one of the hardest guys to beat. He's been a few times second but you have to have respect for a guy like this, he's always there fighting for the win.

"It's really nice having riders like that, he tries to do it all. I don't really have any advice for him, he has to keep on going."

Sagan blamed himself for his failure as he had been in the perfect position to attack Van Avermaet.

When the Belgian launched his attack, Sagan latched onto his wheel but then sat back down on his saddle and waited too long.

"I was up out of the saddle and after I came onto his wheel, I sat down but if I had continued onto the finish maybe it would have been different," he said.

"It was my stupid mistake."

The one plus point, though, was that his second place gave him a 24-point lead over Andre Greipel in the green points jersey competition.

"That's just one positive thing, I'm happy to have some points but for sure first place would be more."
Source: AFP