Tour de France: Kittel makes it three in Nuits-Saint-Georges

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Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) continued his sprint dominance at the Tour de France, taking his third victory of the race in Nuits-Saint-Georges. But this time, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) came the closest to besting the German, forcing the judges to carefully review the finish photo before declaring Kittel the winner. Michael Matthews (Sunweb) was a close third.

The victory was Kittel's 12th in the Tour de France, equaling Erik Zabel's record for stage wins by a German rider in the race, and earned him the green jersey for leader of the points classification.

"It's an incredible success. I'm really proud of it," Kittel said. "I'm in great shape. I'm super happy that the team supported me so well today. I think we did a good lead-out. We believed in this chance, in this victory. It's just crazy. Being back here now in the Tour, after 2014 and 2013, celebrating now already three stage wins is incredible. I'm so happy about it and I enjoy every minute of it."

The sprints continued to be as chaotic as they have been throughout the first week of the Tour, with green jersey Arnaud Démare (FDJ) clashing with Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) in the battle before the final kilometer. But when it came to the final meters, the French teams had used all of their energy on each other, leaving Quick-Step and Dimension Data in firm control of the front of the race.

Quick-Step seized control through to the 400-metres-to-go mark, but then Kittel wisely settled in on Boasson Hagen's wheel, letting South African champion Reinardt Janse van Rensburg lead out his teammate. But Kittel misjudged the finish, and almost waited too long, his bike throw just enough to win by a hair's width on the line.

"I had no clue whether I won or not on the finish line. I just thought, 'This is going to be close.' I tried to make myself three metres longer," Kittel said. "Actually, at 100 metres, when I was on Boasson Hagen's wheel and we came around the corner, I thought it was still 200 metres to go from there, but it was only 120 or something. Then I knew I just had to hope the door was open on the right side and that I could pass him. It was just enough."

Chris Froome (Sky) and the rest of the overall contenders finished in the main peloton with no change to the general classification – Froome leads by 12 seconds over teammate Geraint Thomas, with Fabio Aru (Astana) in third at 14.

"It was definitely a day for the fast guys today, it was more about staying out of trouble, staying up front. There was a lot of talk about crosswinds, so it was critical to be up front, but it never really became tough. It was one of those days to tick off for us. Heading into the weekend, obviously we have some big mountains now, so our focus moves toward that," Froome said.

"Each kilometre you think about the things that could change the course, and you had to stay in front. But everybody knows that Saturday and Sunday are the days for the overall classification. Even so, these flat stages are not easy, but that’s our job."

How it unfolded

The peloton faced another hot and sunny day as they set out from Troyes to cover another 213.5km, with temperatures expected to hit 30°C. New to the mix were strong crosswinds that were feared by the riders throughout the day, but they died down before any team could employ them to split the peloton.

The day's breakaway once again formed quickly after the sharp start to the stage. Manuele Mori (UAE Team Emirates), Maxime Bouet (Team Fortuneo – Oscaro), Yohann Gène (Direct Energie) and Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac) were the lucky four. It seemed a day for a group to stay away to the end, but the field never allowed the group more than three minutes.

The first excitement of the day came with the intermediate sprint at kilometer 108. In the lead group, Bouet was the first to jump, but went too early. Mori caught and passed him for the maximum points.

Behind them, six riders jumped from the peloton to battle it out for the remaining points toward the green jersey competition. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) was first across the line, followed by Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and André Greipel (Lotto Soudal). Green jersey holder Démare slotted into 10th in the sprint, two places ahead of Kittel to extend his lead in that competition by two points. But with a 20-point spread between winner and runner-up in the finish, Démare would need another stage win or a mistake from Kittel to keep the jersey.

With a sprint finish on everyone's mind, the gap started slowly coming down as the sprinters' teams took control of the race, as predicted by Team Sky's leader Froome. The Lotto Soudal train was very visible at the front of the peloton, hoping to finally help Greipel to a stage win, and had reeled the leaders to within a minute by the 40km to go mark.

However, the field was happy enough to let the leading quartet dangle up front between 30 seconds and one minute before Quick-Step Floors realised it was time for action with 12km left.

The four fought hard to stay away, with van Baarle trying to keep them working together, but he wasn't getting much interest. Gene was the first to bow to his fate and fall back, with Mori and Bouet half-heartedly pulling before the Cannondale rider, too, saw that their fate was sealed. They shook hands and soon assumed their places at the back of the peloton.

Orica-Scott then moved into the lead, driving the peloton at high speed, as the teams behind dodged and dove between the intermittent traffic islands. Cofidis and FDJ battled intensely as each tried to infiltrate the others' lead-out. There was contact between Bouhanni and Démare, but fortunately the speed was so high there was no time for further argy-bargy.

Sunweb jumped into the lead with two kilometres to go, but it was Quick-Step leading the way into the finale. Dimension Data had the last lead out man with Janse van Rensburg. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) jumped early and tried to get around Boasson Hagen on the left, but Kittel surged to the right and nudged out the win in the photo finish with Matthews once again just a hair too late on the far left in third.

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