Deceuninck - Quick-Step’s Sam Bennett secured his first Tour de France victory with a sprint to Stage 10 glory.

Bennett held off Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) who finished strongly, with Peter Sagan (BORA - hansgrohe) coming across the line third, and having come close but not close enough to victory on three stages of this year’s race the Irishman was unable to hold back tears in his post-race interview. Bennett is now a stage winner at all three Grand Tours.

It was a nervy day in the peloton, with the fear of crosswinds meaning there was fighting for positions for the finish from as early as 30km out from the expected bunch-sprint finish at Île de Ré.

Michael Schär (CCC Team) and Stefan Küng (Groupama FDJ) formed a two-man break as soon as the flag dropped for km0, and the Swiss pair worked together to establish an advantage of 1’30” over the peloton. By kilometre 69 of the 168.5km parcours they had been reeled in however, with the expected crosswinds playing on the minds of the teams with GC aspirations, as well as those with sprint objectives.

Some crashes caused splits as a nervous peloton entered the final 60km, with some of the big names such as Tadej Pogacar caught up. With a jittery peloton eager to get into position, there were crashes that caused splits as the pace was upped ahead of the sprint finish.

There was no change in the GC, with Primoz Roglic remaining in yellow for another day.