Kittel wins Stage 4 in photo finish
Marcel Kittel won stage four of the Tour de France in Limoges in another photo finish.
A day after pictures were needed to separate Mark Cavendish from Andre Greipel in Angers, Etixx-QuickStep's Kittel took it by the finest of margins from Bryan Coquard of Direct Energie.
Peter Sagan crossed the line in third to retain the yellow jersey while Mark Cavendish, winner of two of the first three stages, came home in eighth.
Tuesday's was the longest stage of the 2016 Tour at 237.5km from Saumur.
After the riders took nearly six hours to cover the 223.5km from Granville to Angers on Monday, the pace was thankfully faster 24 hours later - in large part thanks to a stronger breakaway.
Markel Irizar (Trek-Segafredo), Oliver Naesen (IAM Cycling), Andreas Schillinger (Bora-Argon 18), and Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) went up the road early, building a lead that maxed out at six minutes.
That gap began to fall 100km out, and dropped up under two minutes with 50km left.
Gougeard was the first to be dropped, with the remainder swept up on a short hill seven kilometres from home.