Tour de France: Dan McLay eyes win after third place on stage six
Thursday 7 July 2016 20:30, UK
Britain’s Dan McLay believes he is capable of winning a stage of the Tour de France after finishing an impressive third on stage six.
The 24-year-old, who was born in New Zealand but grew up just outside Leicester and rides for French team Fortuneo-Vital Concept, recorded the best result of his career by crossing the line behind Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel in Montauban.
McLay only has three professional wins to his name - all in low-profile races - and is racing the Tour for the first time, but now thinks he can climb to the top step of the podium.
He said: "If I can get over the mountains, I'll have my shot to win. I feel like my sprint is there. I wasn't so far off today. It has to be possible.
"Today I had a good run at it. I can be confident that I have the legs; I just have to use them."
McLay has now finished in the top 10 in all four sprints in this year's Tour so far.
He engineered his latest result by first following his team-mates and then latching on to Cavendish's wheel.
He added: "Today it [his lead-out train] worked better. I had Armindo Fonseca, Pierre-Luc Perichon and Florian Vachon.
"Cav was around a little by himself, too. He had guys, but he was always trying to find them. To be honest, it was only Etixx who could stay together, and Katusha a little bit.
"I had some good help, three guys. OK, the last two to three kilometres I did it by myself. I think getting some more practice with that would be best, but it's not the time to start in the Tour."
The Tour continues on Friday with the first of three stages in the Pyrenees, a 162.5km ride from L'Isle-Jourdain to Lac de Payolle. Find out more about the route in our race guide and follow the stage with our live blog from 1pm BST.
