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It's not mania for sprinters; it's indignation with the system that privileges them. André Greipel won his third stage yesterday in the current Tour, the ninth in five participations. At 33 years old, the German sprinter has the same number of partial victories as Coppi, Ocaña or Fignon, glorious history of cycling. In the impossibility of them complaining, I allow myself to do it.

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By the way, Greipel already has 24,000 euros in prizes for his three victories and 4,000 more for his second place in Fougères. If we think that whoever occupies the third step of the podium in Paris will only pocket 100,000 euros (after climbing the Alps and the Pyrenees in the lead, without allowing a single mistake in 21 stages), it makes you feel like crying a lot or becoming a sprinter.

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Believe it or not, there are also sprinters who live moments of frustration. Kristoff (not to be confused with the Frozen boy) arrived at the Tour as the killer of the international peloton during the season: 18 victories, the last achieved on June 20 in the Tour de Suisse. Given such success, Katusha decided that Purito would not be their only leader in the race. The result speaks for itself: the Spanish habano has won two stages and the Norwegian lightning can only boast of a third place, which he achieved yesterday in Valence. In the Champs-Élysées, he will have the last opportunity to make amends.

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Sagan, on the other hand, continues his singular battle against the evil eye (for now, he is losing). Yesterday he finished fourth because Degenkolb snatched second place from him; nothing is respected anymore. The Slovak was again a protagonist from start to finish. He joined the hard-working breakaway of 27 brave riders in the company of Pinot, Kwiatkowski, Hesjedal or Rogers. He scored where he could, was caught, and when he concentrated to add his fifth second place, he suffered a puncture and the harassment of a motorcycle. The motorized attack did not go unanswered: Sagan kicked the motorcycle and Faustino the mechanic threw a bidon at the motorcyclist. Another day at the office.

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Perhaps Sagan not only suffers the pressure of a bad streak. His boss, Oleg Tinkov (Siberia, 47 years old), is a peculiar character who could not be a cyclist and became a millionaire. He must pay well (he owns a bank), but his control is absolute and unsettling. He follows the race from the director's car, boasts as much as he can, and threatens to boycott the 2016 Tour if the organization does not distribute a piece of its pie among the teams (television rights, sponsors, etc).

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Blockage. To complete the picture, let's remember that Sagan was Tinkov's star signing for this year (four million per season) and that three months later he was already threatening to knock him down for underperformance. This makes it easier to understand the cyclist's blockage and his almost compulsive eagerness to get into every breakaway. Mr. Oleg observes.

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The race will offer a new opportunity for the chasers today. The climb to Col de Manse, where Contador attacked in 2011, is as tempting as the downhill that opens up to the finish line. Only the strength needs to accompany the temptation.