Chalon sur Saône, July 12th - With 230km it was the longest stage of 2019 Tour de France and an easy target for pure sprinters. Once again, our Sonny grabs another Top Five after a bunch sprint won by the Dutch Dylan Groenewegen.

Sonny's fourth position gave another confirmation that he is one of the sprinters protagonists of this edition of the French race. "First of all - explains the Italian rider - I have to thank my teammates who have done a great job and it is never easy when there are such strong and determined opponents. As usual, Matej Mohoric piloted Ivan Garcia Cortina and me after the “flamme rouge”, but then I touched another rider and lost positions ".

"I tried to reassemble because I felt very good and I arrived a few meters from the stage winner. Too bad, but I keep repeating that I am fit and will continue to seek victory. It was a hard fought sprint with several riders who touched each other but luckily nobody crashed”.

"Tomorrow there is a very difficult stage - concludes Sonny - with about 3800 meters of vertical elevation that I could define as a small “Liege”. I will take my race very easy while waiting for the Sunday one that I really like and so I want to be at my best ".

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Tour de France: Puncture hinders Viviani’s chances

For the seventh consecutive day, Deceuninck – Quick-Step were represented in the top 10 of a stage.

Stage 7 was the last opportunity for sprinters on the opening week of the race and our team was keen on being involved in the fight for a good result. As a result, Kasper Asgreen resumed pace-setting duties, tenaciously marshalling the peloton from kilometer zero and wiping out the lead of the two attackers in the second part of this edition’s longest stage (230 kilometers).

The bunch drew closer and pulled back the breakaway ahead of the 10km-to-go mark, as the pace continued to go up and the sprinters’ teams began fighting for positioning on the wide roads to Chalon-sur-Saône, where the race returned after more than three decades.

Julian Alaphilippe, Yves Lampaert, Michael Mørkøv and Maximiliano Richeze formed a strong and impressive lead-out for Elia Viviani, bringing the Italian speedster into position and deploying him at the front

“After the last corner I noticed that my wheel wasn’t steady and I realised at once that it was a puncture and I wouldn’t be able to sprint properly. It was bad luck, and it makes me sad, because the guys worked hard today to bring back the escapees and put me at the front with the finish line in sight. But that’s sport, and there’s nothing you can do in this kind of situations”, a disappointed Elia explained.