Say what you will about Peter Sagan and his sprint legs, but the three-time world champion continues to put all his energy into defending his green jersey title at this year's Tour de France.

On stage 14 to Lyon, Bora-Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan spent what should have been a day for the break, or at least most of it, for the points prize. He led Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) by 63 points on this stage. He then closed the gap to 5 points in the intermediate sprint, and pulled away to another 18 points in fourth place at the finish line, reducing Bennett's lead to 43 points.

Bennett initially tried to follow Sagan and his team on the first climb of the Côtes du Château d'Artelieve, where they set the pace, but the Irishman conceded toward the summit and Sagan was able to catch Stéphane Cung (Groupama-FDJ) and Edward Theuns ( Trek-Segafredo) behind him, who quickly took 15 points in the intermediate sprint.

In the Col du Béal, the Bora team accelerated again, and Bennett fell near the top of the second classified mountain. The gap was about 30 seconds, but on the short descent to the climb of the Côte de couleurs, Bennett and his pace-setting teammates began to lag behind. With 80 km to go, Bennett crossed the finish line in 106th place, nearly 20 minutes behind the lead group.

The time difference was irrelevant, but Sagan gained more points and finished in fourth place, 15 seconds behind stage winner Søren Kragu Andersen. It was another tough stage in the Tour de France for Bennett, but Sagan will be looking to take as many points as possible, and the battle for the green jersey could come down to the end.

"It was a hard day," Bennett said in the mixed zone after the stage. "Sensibly it was a much better day than yesterday. Yesterday I was dead, but this morning I was reborn."

"In the first intermediate sprint, I knew Bora was going to hurt me, so I let them go ...... But then I missed the last kilometer on the long climb and lost my chance there. I wasn't too tired today, I felt good.

"And of course I want to thank my teammates who did a great job today as usual. I'm in better shape than yesterday. It's normal when you go deep in a Tour de France stage, you pay the price for it. Hopefully tomorrow will be an easier day," Bennett said.

Luckily for Bennett, although stage 15 ends with a summit finish, there is an intermediate sprint after 58km of undulations. If Sagan goes on the offensive, Bennett, the faster Irishman of the two, will be able to hold his own.