The Tour de France bid a fond farewell to the UK after the third and final stage of the 2014 Grand Départ and The Mall, with Buckingham Palace as the backdrop, provided an iconic finish for Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) to claim his second win in three days.
After two tough stages in Yorkshire, with Kittel winning the first before Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) triumphed on the second to claim the yellow jersey from the German’s shoulders, the race moved south for the pan-flat 155km stage from Cambridge to the capital.
Two riders – Jan Barta of NetApp-Endura and Jean-Marc Bideau of Bretagne-Seche – went clear from the gun to set the familiar pattern of a Tour de France sprint stage and both were reeled in, first Bideau and then Barta, as the peloton sped through London’s streets, lined with thousands of spectators, just as had been the case in Yorkshire.
And that left Kittel to claim a dominant win after a perfectly-executed leadout from his Giant-Shimano team.
