Kittel wins another stage as Froome retains yellow

Marcel Kittel won stage 11 of the Tour de France in Pau for his fifth victory of the race so far as Chris Froome retained the yellow jersey.

Kittel made it two wins in two days following his win in Bergerac 24 hours earlier, extending his dominance of the sprint stages in this year’s Tour.

Dylan Groenewegen of LottoNL-Jumbo was second ahead of Team Dimension Data’s Edvald Boasson Hagen.

Dan McLay of Fortuneo-Oscaro came home in fifth, his third top-10 finish of this year’s Tour and best yet, with Ben Swift of UAE Team Emirates ninth.

Team Sky’s Froome crossed the line safely in the pack to retain his 18-second lead over Italian national champion Fabio Aru in the general classification.

The sprinters had broken the heart of Bora-Hansgrohe’s Maciej Bodnar, who attacked out of the breakaway with 28 kilometres remaining and tried to solo home.

The Pole was within 350 metres of making it when the pack finally caught up, and Bodnar could only watch as Kittel, still well back in the pack at that point, swung around him before overhauling his rivals before the line.

Another quiet day had been expected in the battle for yellow, but there were a few dramas along the 203.5 kilometre stage from Eymet.

Aru’s Astana squad suffered a major blow in a feed zone crash with Jakob Fuglsang, fifth in the general classification, hurting his arm, while key helper Dario Cataldo was forced to abandon the race.

AG2R La Mondiale’s Romain Bardet also hit the deck but quickly recovered, while twotime Tour winner Alberto Contador went down with around 20km remaining before pacing his way back.

Chris Froome leads overall by 18 seconds.