Today was a quiet day in the race which ended in a bunch sprint in Tours.
A 5-man break raced through Laval which included Flecha, Gavazzi, Siccard, Delaplace and Mori. They were gobbled up before the finish in Tours where a tight sprint between Cavendish and Marcel Kittel was won by Kittel. This was his third win in this year’s Tour.
“This win today means a lot to me,” said Kittel. “It’s the third win for the team, which is incredible. The team again did a really good job. They worked hard and kept me out of the wind all day. In the final kilometers it was our train against Omega-Pharma-QuickStep. When the last lead-out man pulled off I jumped to the right wheels and had a very good position when Mark Cavendish started the sprint. I stayed calm and was able to overtake him in the end, but it was very close.”
Cavendish commented on today’s stage:
“You can sit there and analyze it, but when there is someone simply faster than you there is nothing you can do,” Cavendish said. “I don’t think me, or the team, could have done anything differently. He was just simply better today. I Tweeted the other day I think he’s the next big thing. I spoke with him today actually. I think he’s the next superstar in sprinting and he showed it today. He’s won three stages now and that’s not easy. I can tell you that from experience.”
“My team did incredible today,” Cavendish said. “We analyzed the finish beforehand. In the last days I think we’ve been a little to eager, you know, which is kind of a good thing because it means you’ve got the commitment from everybody. But ultimately we always ran out of guys. So today we talked about staying calm and staying patient and going at the last moment. The guys were a lot more comfortable and it made my job a lot easier. I’m just really disappointed I couldn’t finish it off for them.”
