Kittel claims hat-trick of Tour wins in thrilling photo-finish
At the 1986 Belgian Novice Championships Wilfried Nelissen and Serge Baguet were so close on the line they had to have a 1km one-onone ride-off to decide who won. While the crowd in Nuits-saintgeorges might have enjoyed something similar yesterday, it was a sticky 35C in Burgundy and the riders might have kicked up a fuss, especially off the back of a hard week’s racing.
Besides, these days the Tour uses finish-line cameras capable of capturing 10,000 frames per second. They needed that level of precision yesterday to separate the eventual winner Marcel Kittel (Quick-step Floors) from Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimenson Data) in one of the closest Tour finishes of all time.
Tissot, who run the timing for the Tour, reckoned Kittel’s eventual winning margin was 0.0003, which amounted to some six millimetres. For all the talk of potential crosswinds, the stage had progressed serenely enough until that point. The riders might as well have been sampling the local produce – champagne at the start, burgundy at the finish – for all that it looked like there might be any action. A breakaway group of four riders escaped up the road but were kept on a very tight leash, never being allowed to build a lead of more than four minutes. They were caught with six kilometres remaining.
The sprint was taken at an extremely high pace with the wind behind and, as they entered the final 200 metres, it looked for all the world as if former Sky rider Boasson Hagen was going to take his first Tour stage win since 2011. Kittel, though, managed to work his way out of a tight spot and put in a devastating kick, overhauling Boasson Hagen on the line.
Kittel, who now has three stage wins at this Tour, also claimed the green jersey from French national champion Arnaud Demare (FDJ), who could only finish 11th. That was one place behind Briton Dan Mclay (Fortuneo-oscaro), who was left kicking himself. “I made a big error in the finish,” he said. “I didn’t believe in myself and I got stuck freewheeling on Demare’s wheel.”
Dimension Data could potentially have another shot today, with a stage which looks well suited to the canny Steve Cummings. It’s a 187.5km ride from Dole to Station des Rousses in the Jura mountains which finishes with a first category climb followed by a 10km blast to the finish. The breakaway specialists will fancy their chances of cresting the Montee de la Combe de Laisia Les Molunes ahead of the bunch and hanging.
Chris Froome, Team Sky’s race leader, meanwhile, predicted that tomorrow’s stage from Nantua to Chambery, featuring three Hors Categorie climbs, would be decisive to the general classification.