Marcel 'the next big thing' Kittel wins again; and I manage to avoid the result all day

I did it. I managed to stay off Twitter and Facebook and the various cycling websites for the entire morning and afternoon yesterday to avoid hearing what was going on over in France. It allowed me to return home after a short bike ride of my own without a clue as to what was going to happen when I sat down to watch my recording of the days action. It was great.

All through this Tour I've followed live updates on the Cycling Weekly website, I've been on Twitter and have even hopped on to check out a live stream of the final 10 kilometres or so. It means when I get home and sit down to watch the recording of the entire stage, hours upon hours worth -- and I watch it all -- I do so in the knowledge of who is going to win, and worse, how they are going to win.

Sure I might get to see how it's won but it's not the same as lying back on the sofa with a hot cup of tea or a cold beer and really enjoying the flow of the race, seeing it build into something unscripted.



And so it was. I had picked Mark Cavendish to win today and was sure we'd see it after a disappointing sprint two days ago when he had that incident with Veelers and then yesterday when some brain dead idiot decided to throw urine on him while he did his time-trial. I suppose when you line the route with millions of people the chances are that you'll find one vile excuse for a human desperate to do something disgusting. It's a wonder it doesn't actually happen more given that the Tour provides free access to all its fans.

As it turned out though I was wrong about Cavendish though I only found out fifty metres from the line. Cavendish and his Omega Pharma Quickstep team did everything right. They let the early break hover nicely at around four or five minutes out the front all day before finally reeling them in with help from a few of the other sprint teams and even Team Sky despite the fact none of the men in the break were any threat to the general classification.

Into the final kilometres and a hard crash near the front brought an end to the hopes of a stage win for Andre Greipel who got held up, leaving the dash for the line to be contested by Marcel Kittel, Peter Sagan, Cavendish and whoever else felt lucky.

It was a tricky finish. Not quite as technical or dangerous as two days ago but two right hand bends in the final thousand metres kept things on edge. Cavendish's leadout train held the inside line but got swarmed by a quicker Argos-Shimano train. Then Gert Steegmans, the final man in Cavendish's line took the final corner brilliantly and it took Cavendish right to the front. They appeared to be gaping the rest when the man from the Isle of Man made his move.

At this point the result seemed inevitable: Cavendish as we've seen so many times would kick clear and perhaps win this sprint by as much as four or five lengths. The Missile was back. Phil Liggett in the commentary box certainly thought so.

"...But you never catch Cavendish at this stage of the race," screamed Liggett, right at about the same moment that the young Kittel got onto Cavendish's wheel and began to surge past. Kittel's kick was phenomenal. He closed the gap, got alongside and past Cavendish to beat him by about a wheels length all in the space of fifty metres. All Cavendish could do was look across in amazement at Kittel, and for the first time see a man in front of him when it came to such a sprint. I can't recall a time in the Tour de France that from taking the lead in a sprint I've seen Cavendish lose it like that.

You couldn't help but ask the question. What was wrong with Cavendish? Has he lost a step? Is his form just not quite there after a big effort in the Giro d'Italia back in May? Is he injured? Or haave the others just caught up with him now? You can't keep on at the relentless pace of five or six stage wins per Tour forever. Then again, it's not as though Cavendish is past it yet. He should be coming into his prime. Maybe it was just one of those days and we're all over analysing it. As Cavendish himself said afterwards, he was just beaten by a faster man today.

That's Kittel's third stage win now and quite clearly he is the best sprinter so far in this Tour. By my reckoning there's still two or three more chances for the sprinters including Paris so all is not lost for Cavendish. We could yet see him win three or four stages or we could see Kittel continue to emerge as -- in the words of Cavendish -- 'the next big thing' with five or six stage wins of his own.

These flat stages may not be too thrilling to the passive fan, but the sprint battles we're enjoying between Kittel, Cavendish, Greipel and Sagan certainly make watching for the final kilometre worth it.