Kittel cashes in with top riders out of action

Marcel Kittel had little trouble winning the sixth stage of the Tour de France in a mass sprint finish yesterday with Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish both no longer in the race.

Chris Froome held on to the leader’s yellow jersey after a sultry but uneventful day in the peloton.

It was Kittel’s second victory in this year’s race and 11th overall in his Tour career.

As the other contenders bunched together on the right side of the road, Kittel burst forward around them on the left and easily created a comfortable gap allowing him to celebrate as he crossed the line.

“I was really confident in my team,” Kittel said. “I was also really confident in myself. There was just a moment when I broke free and started to go ahead.”

Stage four winner Arnaud Demare finished second and Andre Greipel was third. Sagan, the world champion, was disqualified for elbowing Cavendish to the ground t wo days ago. The fall resulted in Cavendish, who has 30 Tour wins, abandoning the race with a broken shoulder.

Kittel said the absence of Cavendish and Sagan has altered the racing in that their teams are no longer battling out the sprint finishes.

He was repeatedly asked after his win about their absence.

“It’s a bit sad that it’s all about this decision,” he said. “The level we have here for the sprints is still very high.”

Kittel required slightly more than five hours to ride the mostly flat 216km leg from Vesoul to Troyes, and then bent down over his handlebars, close to tears, as he took in the win.

The route in northeastern France passed through Colombey- les- DeuxEglises, the home town of France’s wartime hero and former president, General Charles de Gaulle, and ended in champagne country.

A three- man breakaway rode out front for most of the stage. Perrig Quemeneur, Frederik Backaert and Vegard Stake Laengen were caught by the peloton with 3km to go.

Otherwise, the only incident of note came when a beach umbrella floated across the pack with about 90km left, prompting Froome and his Sky teammates to veer out of the way.

“There was a bit of wind and the parasol took off and ended up in the road,” he said. “That’s the Tour.”

Froome remained 12 seconds ahead of Sky teammate Geraint Thomas and 14 seconds ahead of Fabio Aru of Italy. The Tour remained in Troyes for the start of stage seven overnight, a 213.5km leg that again was set up well for sprinters with a finish in the wine town of Nuits- SaintGeorges. Another mountainous stage, where Froome and Porte should be among the protagonists, is scheduled for tonight.

Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ( CAS) yesterday rejected Sagan’s team’s appeal against the exclusion of the world champion from the Tour de France after he sent Cavendish crashing in a sprint.

“The Court of Arbitration of Sport [ CAS] issued a decision rejecting an urgent request for provisional measures filed by the Slovak cyclist Peter Sagan and the Denk Pro Cycling team in the afternoon of 5 July 2017,” CAS said in a statement.

“Accordingly, Peter Sagan remains disqualified from the 2017 Tour de France.”