With two tight corners in the final kilometre, position and control at the front of the speeding pack might have seemed to be the key to success today. Apparently not if your name is Marcel Kittel. With 500m to go, the be-quiffed German speedster was so far back he might as well have been in the gruppetto. With 200m to go, he hopped off first-to-open-his-sprint Dan McLay‘s wheel and surged past eight riders to victory number four with ease. John Degenkolb caught his slipstream to take second with Dylan Groenewegen rounding out the podium. The GC contenders came through unscathed and Chris Froome pulled on his 50th maillot jaune – what a record!