Kittel wins tight stage

NUITS-SAINT-GEORGES, FRANCE » Another day, another victory for Marcel Kittel in the Tour de France.

Only this time, the German made his move nearly too late and edged Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway only in a photo finish to win his third stage — and second in two days — in the race on Friday.

Provisional results awarded Kittel the victory but the photo of the finish left room for questions.

Kittel seemed sure he won, holding up three fingers to celebrate his three stage wins.

“It was super, super close,” Kittel said. “When there’s a photo finish, you have your doubts. I was lucky.”

Three-time champion Chris Froome will wear the yellow jersey into the mountains this weekend.

“Nothing really big happened today,” Froome said. “The GC (general classification) riders are thinking of the mountains coming this weekend.”

It was Kittel’s 12th career win in the Tour, tying him with Erik Zabel for the German record.

Kittel clocked slightly more than five hours over the mostly flat 213.5-kilometer (132-mile) leg from Troyes in champagne country to Nuits-SaintGeorges in the heart of the Burgundy winemaking region.

Michael Matthews of Australia crossed third.

Boasson Hagen took over the leadership duties at Team Dimension Data after Mark Cavendish abandoned the race with a broken shoulder this week. World champion Peter Sagan was disqualified from the Tour for causing Cavendish’s high-speed crash.

The victory helped Kittel take the green points jersey from French national champion Arnaud Demare, who finished 11th.