cycling: Tour de France Stage #14: Cavendish for fourth

Cycling: Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) won the largely uneventful 14th stage of the Tour de France. He beat Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) by mass sprint. John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) showed a clear improvement with his fourth place.

A quartet pulls away hopelessly

There hasn't been a mass sprint in the Tour de France since Stage 6. That was about to change today as the route took the riders 208,5km on mostly flat terrain from Montélimar to Villars-les-Dombes. Of course, the breakaways also knew that the chances today are likely to be rather small. Therefore, the field drove the first 29 km through the countryside in one piece before there was finally a serious attack. This sat then immediately. A quartet consisting of Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Alex Howes (Cannondale), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-Argon 18) and Martin Elmiger (IAM) was able to break away. For the spectators that was the excitement and they had no choice but to enjoy the wonderful French landscape. Although the four breakaways were granted a reasonable lead, there was never any doubt of a mass sprint. First, however, there was an intermediate sprint on the way, which of course the leading group secured. In the battle for fifth place, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) was ahead of Marcel Kittel (Etixx-Quick Step), Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie).

Mark Cavendish with his 30th Tour de France victory

With around 20 km to go, the field then kept the lead mostly under a minute. After Howes fell behind and then Benedetti was no longer able to keep up with the leaders, only the duo of Roy and Elmiger were ahead. These two finally shook hands three kilometers before the finish and thanked each other for their support. Now the sprinter teams finally took over the helm. While previously Team Dimension Data mostly set the pace, the three teams with the red jerseys, Katusha, Lotto Soudal and Cofidis, were now at the top. Two kilometers from the finish, almost the entire blue armada of Etixx-Quick Step was in front, but since Kittel only had one man in front of him on the last 700 meters, he found himself in the wind much too early. Cavendish thus had the best starter in Kittel, sprinted past and won his fourth stage of the year. A wave immediately after the overtaking maneuver almost caused the German to fall and he complained before crossing the finish line. The Norwegian Alexander Kristoff came in second ahead of Peter Sagan. Excellent fourth was John Degenkolb, who presented himself in much better shape than last time.

Tour de France Stage #14 – The day's result

Tour de France Stage #14 – The General Classification