Kittel wins Tour de France Stage 4 in a sprint to Limoges

Germany’s sprinter Marcel Kittel, right, crosses the finish line ahead of Peter Sagan of Slovakia, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey to win the fourth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 237.5 kilometers (147.3 miles) with start in Saumur and finish in Limoges, France, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. AP Photo/Christophe Ena

LIMOGES, France  — German rider Marcel Kittel claimed the fourth and longest stage of the Tour de France after a massive sprint on Tuesday.

Frenchman Bryan Coquard looked set to post his first stage win in cycling’s showpiece event until Kittel resisted his rival’s late surge and beat him by a whisker.

It was Kittel’s ninth stage win at the Tour.

Waiting for the official results, the German sat on the road then exploded in joy when he was told he won.

“I feel very emotional right now, it feels like my first stage win again,” Kittel said. “I’m mega, mega happy. I’m very proud, because the team was really fighting for this win. Things went wrong in the last days, and I’m so happy to be back in the Tour and to win a stage like this.”

World champion Peter Sagan ended third and kept the yellow jersey. Courtesy of the time bonus, he extended his overall lead over Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe to 12 seconds. Spaniard Alejandro Valverde was third, 14 seconds back.

The stage took the peloton from the medieval town of Saumur to Limoges in central France on a 237.5-kilometer ride.

After a first attack fizzled out soon after the start, a group of four managed to escape from the pack and build up a five-minute lead over the peloton.

Tour debutants Oliver Naesen and Alexis Gougeard, alongside Markel Irizar and Andreas Schillinger, made their move near the 30-kilometer mark and quickly increased the gap, helped by tail wind.

Determined to defend Sagan’s yellow jersey, his Tinkoff teammates hit the front of the bunch to speed up the pace in hot and sunny conditions. They organized the chase with sprinter teams Lotto-Soudal and Etixx-Quick Step, and the gap was down to four minutes with 100 kilometers left.

However, the pack was in no rush to rein in the breakaway riders on the winding roads of the lush green Limousin countryside.

Gougeard was dropped from the leading group with 35 kilometers left, moments before the pursuit really started in the hilly finale to Limoges. The remaining trio was swallowed in a small climb seven kilometers from the finish.

On the eve of the first mountain stage in Massif Central, the race’s main favorites enjoyed a quiet day safe in the peloton.