Unstoppable Marcel Kittel sprints to another stage win
Marcel Kittel made it back-to-back stage wins in the Tour de France as he produced another storming sprint finish to seal victory on Wednesday.
Published : Jul 12, 2017 22:33 IST
Marcel Kittel made it back-to-back stage wins in the Tour de France as he produced another storming sprint finish to seal victory on Wednesday.
The Quick-Step Floors rider had shown his remarkable prowess in crossing the line first in Bergerac on Tuesday, and he repeated the feat 24 hours later at the end of another flat 11th stage, which this time measured 203.5 kilometers (126 miles) from Eymet to Pau.
It was a gut-wrenching end to the stage for Bora-Hansgrohe's Maciej Bodnar, who was involved in a three-man break for much of the route before going alone with around 25 km (15 miles) remaining.
He still led inside the final kilometer, but the bunch were on his wheel with 300 meters left before Kittel powered his way past Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data), who finished second and third respectively, to earn a fifth stage victory of this year's Tour.
Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and Dan McLay (Fortuneo-Oscaro) rounded out the top five as they, too, proved no match for Kittel's incredible sprinting talent.
Double defending champion Chris Froome retained his general classification lead as there was no change in the fight for the yellow jersey.