German Kittel thrives

LILLE, France — Marcel Kittel won his third stage on this year’s Tour de France by prevailing in a bunch sprint on Tuesday after defending champion Chris Froome suffered a fall.

The German rider, who wonthe first and thirdstages, nowhas sevenTour stages to his name after beating Norwegian Alexander Kristoff and France’s Arnaud Demare.

Itdidnotgoassmoothlyas in his first twovictories, however, as his Giant-Shimano team could not lead him into the finale, but Kittel finished off the job himself.

“I was not sure when to startmy sprint, itworked out but it was very close,” Kittel said at a news conference.

“In the end, there was a possibility to sit on the wheels of another team.”

The Giant-Shimano train was put to the test by other teams, who rode hard in the final 3 kilometers in an effort to isolate Kittel.

“We should take it maybe as a compliment,” the German said. “The most important thing was that my team brought me to the front. It was fastandvery nervous but Iwas there with one kilometer to go.”

ItalianVincenzoNibali retained the overall leader’s yellowjersey afterspendinga quiet day in the peloton, which was not the case for Froome on the eve of a treacherous stage.

The Briton fell off his bike 5 kilometers into the 163.5-kilometer ride from Le Touquetbutquickly got back, sustaining a possible wrist injury and bruising his left hip, shoulder, knee and elbow.

“It’s all right, it’s all right. We got really scared because it was a heavy fall but he seems to be OK. He says it’s OK,” said Team Sky sports directorNicolas Portal.