Peter Sagan elbows his way to a Grand Tour stage win (finally)

After somewhat inexplicably being awarded the green jersey after stage one, Peter Sagan said that it was like he was still in the Tour de France. If he wanted evidence that this wasn’t actually the case, it came when he won stage three.

During the Tour de France, Sagan’s bridesmaidery was such that he could have been mistaken for Katherine Heigl in mediocre rom-com, 27 Dresses. He even finished second to Greg Van Avermaet, which raised the possibility that the world might end due to some sort of existential paradox. It didn’t, which meant Sagan was free to continue crossing the line second with Ruben ‘Who?’ Plaza the next to take a turn.

But as Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch once sang, nothing ever lasts forever, and Sagan finally broke the cycle on stage three of the Vuelta. After quite literally elbowing his way into John Degenkolb’s sprint train, he went past the German in the closing metres and timed his effort well enough to hold Nacer Bouhanni at bay as well. Proof, if it were needed, that pretty much anything can happen at the Vuelta.