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| Germany’s Marcel Kittel claimed his fifth victory in the 2017 Tour de France as he timed a late sprint to perfection in Stage 11 at Pau on a day of little drama in south-west France. Chris Froome retained his yellow jersey after Alberto Contador, Romain Bardet and Jakob Fuglsang all hit the deck. |
Marcel Kittel said winning sprint finishes at the Tour de France was
like playing tetris as he claimed a fifth stage success this year.
The 29-year-old German was at his imperious best in winning a fifth
sprint finish out of six, once again making it look easy.
And the Quick-Step sprinter said finding his line to the finish was like
playing a computer game.
"You know, sometimes when you're on your top level in the sprints,
it's like playing tetris," he said.
"I'm very proud of this performance, it's amazing, and it’s going
so well. The team is very well organised, I feel good and I'm always finding my
route to the line.
"Five stages wins, that's remarkable at the Tour de France."
Having won back-to-back stages for the second time in this Tour, Kittel
will have a couple of days out of the limelight in the Pyrenees now, as race
leader Chris Froome and his rivals take centre stage.
Kittel, who has 14 stage wins in total since 2013, increased his lead in
the green jersey competition to 133 points over Australian Michael Matthews and
said he is now hoping to hold onto the jersey all the way to Paris.
"Of course, this doesn't come for free, it's hard work and to
defend it over three weeks for me is a new experience.
"I'm looking forward to it."
Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen took second with Edvald Boasson Hagen of
Norway third in the sprint finish but there was agony for Poland's Maciej
Bodnar who spent more than 200km in a breakaway, only to be caught with 300
metres to ride.
For Bodnar it was the second year in a row he'd come close to victory on
the 11th stage.
- 'So close' -
Last year he was part of a late four-man breakaway alongside Froome and
world champion Peter Sagan but was beaten to the line by both of those.
"It was so close, I'm a little bit disappointed, but what can I
say," Bodnar, who revealed his father had died two months ago, said.
"Like last year, it was so close.
"I can be happy; maybe we can try in other stages, why not?"
Bodnar was part of a three-man breakaway from the gun of the 203.5km stage
from Eymet to Pau alongside Italian Marco Marcato and Frederik Backaert of
Belgium.
"When I saw one time with 3km to go, the bunch was still 200 metres
(back), I was thinking I could still do it," he added.
"But the last 400 metres was really, really hard for me, and the
bunch was going really fast.
"That was that. I think 10 seconds more then we could celebrate
something nice."
Froome maintained his 18-second lead over Italy's Fabio Aru with
Frenchman Romain Bardet third at 51sec.
And from Thursday, the yellow jersey battle will resume in the mountains
with back-to-back Pyrenean stages.
Briton Froome said his Sky team will be wary of rivals attacking from
distance, particularly the likes of Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador, who
have already lost significant time and sit more than two and five minutes
respectively off the lead.
"The number one priority for us is not to allow anyone to come back
into the GC (overall) game -- someone who's already lost time.
"For me personally, I've got to keep a close eye on Fabio Aru, it's
only 18 seconds -- I'm going to have to stick to him like glue tomorrow."
But Quintana, amongst others, is planning to make a move.
"If I'm strong, I'll attack. We'll see," he said.
Contador, meanwhile, crashed twice on Wednesday, taking to four his
total number of spills in the race.
He's been nursing injuries since Sunday but said anyone questioning
whether he would go on is barking up the wrong tree.
"It's true that this Tour is pushing me
to my psychological limits but I'm telling you, if people think I'm going to
give up it's because they don't know me."
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