Bora-Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan attacked and scored points on Sunday's second stage to take his eighth green jersey in this year's Tour de France.

Sagan was already wearing the green jersey on stage 2, but was actually just saving it for Christophe, who was wearing the yellow jersey as race leader, because Mads Pedersen, who finished second, was wearing the white jersey as best young rider, Sagan wore green because he was third in the competition.

Sagan, a native of Slovakia, had already attempted to break the record of seven Tour point hauls when he formed part of a breakaway group on the hilly course around Nice in stage 2. In the intermediate sprint, he finished second behind CCC team's Matteo Trentin after only 16km, but while Trentin dropped back into the pack, Sagan may have decided that he needed to train for the next three weeks of competition.

Sagan eventually fell on the Col du Tourini climb, but it was a great day for the 30-year-old.

"It was a long day, but a good one," he said. I had to fight for more points to get the green jersey."

"I'm happy that "Emu" (Bora's GC contender Emmanuel Buchmann) was able to finish in the main group.

"It was a very hard stage and Peter was focused on getting more points in the intermediate sprint. Lucas and Peter got into a breakaway and Peter finished second."

Sagan will continue to attack, but new leader Julien Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and other overall winners may come to the fore even more in the future.

However, unless a GC rider or a non-sprinter emerges in the battle for the green jersey, Sagan could ultimately end up uncrowned in his quest for an eighth title. With the mountainous stages that make up this Tour, Trentin is probably the only one who could attack Sagan in the intermediate sprint.

Despite the struggles of Bora-Hansgrohe so far, Kristoff leads the points chase by 18 points over Sagan.

"It was nice to spend a day in yellow," Christophe said. It was my first time and maybe my last. So even though it was a very tough stage, I tried to enjoy every moment of this new experience."

"Tomorrow [Monday, stage 3] will be green.