Greipel does a Kittel, and then some...

When Marcel Kittel won stages two and three of this years Giro he did so by what appeared to be a combined length of about eight lengths. His chief rival and fellow countryman, Andre Greipel was well beaten, finishing 15th and 4th respectively. Until today that was, when the next sprint stage presented itself, though not before enough short little climbs eliminated Kittel from contention, and Greipel, duly delivered with a sprint victory that ought to have come with a time gap as he put a fair ten lengths between himself and Arnaud Demare in second.

If there were a sprint competition for wins by lengths then I'd reckon Greipel on this sprint alone had taken the lead back from Kittel.

It was a statement of intent by the Lotto-Soudal rider who must have been feeling a little pressure to show his own turn of speed, and a reminder of his abilities to navigate the smaller hills that catch some of the other pure sprinters out. It now means he has won at least one stage from every Grand Tour he has entered dating back to the 2008 Giro. A fantastic level of consistency.

While I'm OK with bunch sprints being limited to a handful of stages in Grand Tours, I do hope we get at least another opportunity for one and with it a proper elbow-to-elbow battle between the two big Germans. Kittel appears to have the edge when he is there, but Greipel will have felt a surge of confidence with that performance today.