Marcel Kittel (Skil-Shimano) confirmed his status as the fastest man at this year’s Quatre Jours de Dunkerque by taking his third stage victory out of three between Caudry and Le Cateau-Cambrésis. The 22-year-old German beat Belarusian Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ) and Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) into second and third at the end of the 171.2km stage.
A fast start to the stag saw numerous unsuccessful attacks trying to escape the vigilant peloton. Finall though, after 65km, Rémi Cusin (Cofidis) got away with Anders Lund (Leopard-Trek), Andy Cappelle (Quick Step) Cyril Bessy (Saur-Sojasun), Claude Mathieu (Europcar) and Anthony Colin (Roubaix Lille Métropole).
After 93km the six riders led by 4’10”, but the peloton managed to reduce the deficit to just 1’25” at the 127km point, with almost 45km to go.
With 3km to go the lead had been whittled down to just one minute, and the breakaway goup had been reduced to just Cusin, Claude and Cappelle. A huge amount of work from Filippo Pozzato and the Katusha team managed to bring the three of the back inside the final kilometre though, and the sprint was on once again.
Kittel was perfectly placed to launch his sprint and managed to leave the rest of them in his wake to take a clear victory once more.
More time bonuses on the line mean that Kittel once more extends his lead in the overall classification. He will have to work hard to hold on to his pink jersey in tomorrow’s fourth and penultimate stage though, which traverses a number of tough hills in its 189.6km parcours.
Result stage 3
1. Marcel Kittel (Ger) Skil-Shimano
2. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ
3. Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Katusha
4. Micheal Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator
5. Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Leopard Trek
6. Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) Landbouwkrediet
7. Michele Merlo (Ita) De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia
8. Sébastien Hinault (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
9. Laurent Pichon (Fra) Bretagne-Schuller
10. Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel) Landbouwkrediet
Standings after stage 3
1. Marcel Kittel (Ger) Skil-Shimano
2. Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) Landbouwkrediet @ 30s
3. Mathieu Claude (Fra) Europcar
4. Martijn Keizer (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM @ 31s
5. Michael Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator @ 32s