World cycling has a new sprint star. For the first time I can remember in my Tour watching career, Mark Cavendish was delivered perfectly to the finish by his lead out team....and lost. He was defeated by three time stage winner at this years Tour Marcel Kittel, who powered over the top of the Manx Missile in the closing 50m to win his second straight photo finish. Green Jersey wearer Peter Sagan finished and ever consistent third, while fellow German Andrei Greipel was caught up in a crash in the final kilometres and failed to feature in the finish. With the crash occurring inside the final 3km, the entire peleton received the same time and there was no change to the general classification.
The win my mark a turning point in world sprinting, as for the first time Mark Cavendish appears to have a true rival for speed at the end of race. Previously, at the Tour at least, Cav has been literally unbeatable if given a fair shot at a sprint, and it has only been bad luck or poor pre-sprint positioning that has cost him victory. That was not the case today. Gert Steegmans delivered Cav perfectly to the line, leaving Cav with just 250m to deal with on his own accord. And he wasn't up to the job. After bursting clear of the field he seemed to fade badly in the last 50m, allowing Kittel to storm over the top of him and pip him on the line. It appears Cav may finally have a rival when it comes to the final sprint on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
Apart from that there was not much too a typical transitional stage with a small breakaway going clear before being reeled in by the sprinters teams. The crash was caused by Greipel's Lotto team, who were trying to move up the field aggressively in order to set up the sprint team, but only managed to wipe themselves out with the usual collateral damage that comes with a peleton flying to the finish at 45km an hour plus.
There was no change to any of the classifications, and that theme is likely to be continued tomorrow, when Kittel will get a chance to make it 4 wins at this years race.
Yellow Jersey - Chris Froome
Green Jersey - Peter Sagan
Polka Dot Jersey - Pierre Rolland
White Jersey - Michal Kwiatowski
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