Kittel claims Tour de Picardie

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Marcel Kittel (Team Argos-Shimano) took a convincing sprint victory on the final stage of the Tour de Picardie which secured the general classification win for the German fast man. Vacansoleil-DCM teammates Kenny van Hummel and Danny van Poppel rounded out the top three for the 171km stage from Nanteuil-le-Haudouin to Soissons.

The third and final stage of the Tour de Picardie would be the decider for overall honours between Kittel and Frenchman Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar), as the pair started the day tied on time having each won one stage and finished second on another the previous two days. Coquard started the final stage in the leader's jersey, having won the previous day, and snagged a time bonus at the stage's second intermediate sprint to move into the lead on the road against Kittel, but the Frenchman had no answer for Kittel in the sprint for the stage win. While Kittel won the stage, Coquard could only manage 12th and with the winner's time bonus factored in Kittel won overall by seven seconds against the Europcar Frenchman. Van Hummel completed the GC podium in third place at 20 seconds.

"Today was a very good day – a good ‘late’ birthday present for me," said Kittel, who turned 25 on Saturday. "I am really happy to win the final stage, but even more happier to win the general classification today as well. For a sprinter it doesn’t happen that often, so that makes it very special and I am really proud of it and of the team who made it happen.

"We had a good position for this stage as Europcar had the leader and were forced to take control, so we could save some energy for the final. The last 40km was quite tough as there were some hills and a lot of attacks. We decided from the start that we would focus on the final sprint and not the intermediate one, so we decided to go all in.

"After we had lost Tom Veelers due to a crash, it was up to Ramon Sinkeldam to be my last lead-out man. He positioned me on the front to easily start sprinting with 200m to go. The lead-out went really well and just like Friday, you can see that everybody believes in our goal and stays cool which is what makes the difference and is the key to our success."

The action on the final day kicked off early with David Boucher launching an attack at kilometre 12 and the FDJ rider was soon joined by Maxime Daniel (Sojasun) and Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme-Marseille).

The three escapees worked together smoothly and quickly put clear daylight between themselves and the peloton. 2005 Tour de Picardie stage winner Lloyd Mondory (AG2R La Mondiale) and Luca Wackermann (Lampre-Merida) missed the train but tried to make amends three kilometres later. Despite coming within striking distance from the front of the race, just 20 seconds in arrears in Villers-Cotterêts at km 33.5, the two chasers were unable to close the gap. After a long chase they finally gave up when the difference reached one minute at kilometre 65.

By the time Boucher went across the top of the Côte de Braine (81.5km) in first place, the breakaway had a 2:40 advantage on the field, led by the race leader's team, Europcar. The gap peaked at three minutes at the first intermediate sprint in Malval (100.5km), taken by Daniel. David Boucher, who hails from Maubeuge, not too far from here, grabbed a few more precious KOM points at the top of the Côte de Coucy-le-Château-Auffrique (131.5km, with 39.5km to go), ensuring that once in Soissons he would seize the best climber's jersey from the man who took it yesterday, Sébastien Minard (AG2R La Mondiale).

The break was finally caught with 25km to go. Coquard won the intermediate sprint on the first crossing of the finish line in Soissons (160.5km), netting himself a precious three-second bonus to move ahead of Kittel on the general classification.

The German, however, was keeping his powder dry for the final sprint, which Arnaud Démare (FDJ) was forced to sit out due to a fall nine kilometres from the finish. Kittel, the winner of the first stage in Flixecourt two days ago, launched a powerful sprint on the final straight in Soissons that left all his rivals in the dust.