A guide to the Tour de France
16th July 2016
Mark Cavendish in his HTC Colombia days, by Brendan Rankin, Flickr, Licence CC BY-ND 2.0
Mark Cavendish won Stage 14 today in a bunch sprint at Villars-les-Dombes bird park, after a slog up the Rhône valley into a Mistral headwind.
The Manxman chose to be on the wheel of Marcel Kittel again, and again it proved to be a winning tactic. He came past the big German shortly before the line to take the win. Kittel protested because Cavendish closed him off slightly after coming past, but the outcome was already decided by that point.
This video shows the final kilometre of the stage.
Earlier, four riders were in a break - Martin Elmiger, Jérémy Roy, Cesare Benedetti, and Alex Howes. The last of them was caught with 3.4km left, paving the way for a bunch sprint.
CyclingNews has the full race results and overall standings.
This is the Stage 14 highlights video.
The 2016 Tour de France begins at Mont St Michel, in the Manche département of France. It tackles the Pyrenees before the Alps, and as always there's a final processional stage to Paris.
Stage 15 of the 2016 Tour is 160km in the Jura mountains from Bourg-en-Bresse to Culoz. There are six categorised climbs on the day, and really no respite - either the riders are going up, or they're going down. The intermediate sprint is on a rare piece of flat road at Hauteville-Lompnes. The major ascent on the stage is of the Col du Grand Colombier (hors catégorie). After the col, they join a 'finishing circuit', which involves descending to Anglefort, riding beside the river Rhône to Culoz, ascending part way up the Grand Colombier on the Lacets du Grand Colombier, descending to Anglefort again, and making a final dash along the river to Culoz and the finish line. It's a relatively short, but intense, stage, and it'll be important for the GC contenders that they don't have a bad day. Read about Stage 15, Tour de France 2016.
© 2016 SpeedyHedgehog
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