Tour de France: Marcel Kittel sprints to victory again as Chris Froome holds yellow
Wednesday 19 July 2017 10:04, UK
Marcel Kittel proved his dominance in the sprint by winning stage 11 for his fifth victory of this year's Tour de France as Chris Froome once again retained the yellow jersey.
Quick Step's Kittel made it two wins in two days following his win in Bergerac 24 hours earlier, beating Dylan Groenewegen of LottoNL-Jumbo into second with Team Dimension Data's Edvald Boasson Hagen third.
Team Sky's Froome crossed the line safely in the pack to retain his 18-second lead over Fabio Aru in the general classification.
It was a heartbreaking end to the race for Maciej Bodnar, who was part of a three-man breakaway - alongside Marco Marcato and Frederik Backaert - formed at the start of the flat 203km route from Eymet to Pau at the foot of the Pyrenees.
Bodnar then dropped his two partners with 28km remaining in a bid for solo glory and was within 300m of making it before he was finally swallowed up by the pack as Kittel, still well back in the pack, swung around him before overhauling his rivals before the line.
It was a largely quiet day before the final sprint, although the battle for yellow took a twist when Aru's Astana squad came off worst out of a crash in the feed zone, with Jakob Fuglsang hurting his arm and Dario Cataldo forced to abandon.
"He was a key rider. He would have had an important role in the mountains," said Astana sports director Dmitry Fofonov.
"We have to decide if he undergoes operation in France or in Italy. As for Fuglsang, he already broke the wrist that's injured today. It hurts, he said."
AG2R La Mondiale's Romain Bardet, who sits third, 51 seconds off Froome's pace, also hit the deck but quickly recovered, while two-time Tour winner Alberto Contador went down with around 20km remaining before pacing his way back with the help of team-mate Jarlinson Pantano.
But for the overall contenders, it was a second successive day of tranquility in the peloton ahead of the climb into the Pyrenees.
Stage 11 result:
1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 4:34:27"
2 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo ST
3 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Dimension Data
4 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb
5 Daniel McLay (Gbr) Fortuneo-Oscaro
6 Davide Cimolai (Ital) FDJ
7 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Soudal
8 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis
9 Ben Swift (Gbr) UAE Team Emirates
10 Danilo Wyss (Swi) BMC Racing Team
General Classification:
1 Chris Froome (Gbr) Team Sky 47:01:55"
2 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team +18"
3 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale +51"
4 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac +55"
5 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team +1:37"
6 Daniel Martin (Ire) Quick-Step Floors +1:44"
7 Simon Yates (Gbr) Orica-Scott +2:02"
8 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team +2:13"
9 Mikel Landa (Esp) Team Sky +3:06"
10 George Bennett (NZ) LottoNL-Jumbo +3:53"
