Kittel pips Greipel in photo finish

Germany's Marcel Kittel reacts as he crosses the finish line at the end of the 197km Stage 10. Source: JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

MARCEL Kittel has upstaged fellow German Andrei Greipel to claim a crash-marred 10th stage of the Tour de France as Mark Cavendish found himself at the centre of raging controversy after a high-speed collision inside the final 500m.

Kittel (Argos-Shimano) edged Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) with Cavendish (OPQS) third but the British champion's contact with Kittel's team-mate Tom Veelers overshadowed the victory.

There was immediate conjecture Cavendish would be declassified after overhead footage of incident showed the Manxman veering into Veelers from behind.

Disturbingly, Cavendish appeared to lean into Veelers, catching the Dutchman's right arm, causing him to crash.

Tasmanian Matt Goss narrowly missed Veeler's cascading bike as the bunch hit 70km. Miraculously, all riders avoided Veelers

Chris Froome (Sky) retained a 1min,25 lead over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).

Cadel Evans is 16th overall, 4min,36 behind Froome.

Renowned as a fair rider, Cavendish shook his head in frustration after crossing the line in Saint-Malo after what had been a largely sedate 195km from Saint-Gildas-des-Bois.

But the race exploded inside the last 5km after a five-rider breakway was finally rounded up.

A series of high-speed crashes in the knifing crosswinds inside the final 20km added even more difficulty to a testing finale.

Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil), Svein Tuft (Orice-GreenEDGE) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) all came down heavily as the pace intensfied.

Orica-GreenEDGE was one of several sprint trains to assemble before chaos ensued inside the last 500m.

Earlier, the first attack came less than 5km into the stage after the peloton emerged from the neutralised section in Saint-Gildas-des-Bois in the Loire-Atlantic region.

Jerome Cousin (Europcar), Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel), Luis Mate (Cofidis), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansolile) and Julien Simon (Sojasun) were allowed to jump away on a day always destined to fall to the sprinters.

Given reasonable latitude, the quintet built a maximum lead 5min,5sec after 32km in mild conditions.

Mindful of not giving too much leash to the breakaway, the peloton controlled the time gap as sprint outfits Lotto Belisol, AQrgos Shimano, Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Chris Froome's Sky lieutenants kept watch at the head of the bunch.

The escape group sped through the first hour at average of 42km before slowing appreciably to 36km as the game of cat and mouse continued.

Ploughing into a strengthing headwind, the bunch picked up the tempo approaching the intermediate sprint at Le Hingle.

Spaniard Mate led the breakaway across the line but, with 70km to go to Saint-Malo, the focus was on which of the sprint outfits would be first though La Hingle from the bunch.

Greipel cleverly drafted Sagan's Cannondale train to hold off the Slovakian with Cavendish a close third before the overall contenders started to move closer on smaller, winding roads.

Dutchman Westra claimed the only categorised climb of the day, jumping away on the bottom of the ascent to Cote de Dinan, to pocket maximum King of the Mountain points.

By now, the gap to a massing bunch was dropping steadily but, after a brief rally with 50km to race, all the escapees were not caught until after 192km away

It was merely a foretaste of a manic finale.

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JERSEYS - STAGE 10

YELLOW

A far more relaxing day for Christopher Froome who finished with the bunch to defend his race lead of 1:25 going into the Stage 11 individual time trial.

GREEN

Marcel Kittel won the stage and moved to fourth on the points classification but still trails leader Peter Sagan by 137 points.

POLKADOT

Only one KOM point on offer which was taken by the breakaway meaning Pierre Rolland remains in the polkdadot jersey.

WHITE

Movistar's Tour de France debutant Nairo Quintana remains the best under-25 rider in the Tour and wears the white jersey.

CADEL WATCH

Not a day for the GC contenders and Evans was able to avoid trouble and conserve energy as he looks to improve his 16th place overall in the upcoming time trial.

THE AUSSIES

Matt Goss got lost in the frantic bunch sprint finish and there was no change to GC with Mick Rogers and Cadel Evans remaining in the top 20 overall.

Re-live our live coverage of Stage 10 from Saint-Gildas-Des-Bois to Saint-Malo in the window below.

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