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Germany’s Marcel Kittel earns 9th career Tour de France stage win

Marcel Kittel riding for Etixx-Quick Step wins just ahead of Direct Energie rider Bryan Coquard during Stage 4 of the 2016 Le Tour de France.
Marcel Kittel riding for Etixx-Quick Step wins just ahead of Direct Energie rider Bryan Coquard during Stage 4 of the 2016 Le Tour de France.
(Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
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Hit by a virus, denied a place in the Tour de France and then parting company with his team, not much went right last season for German sprinter Marcel Kittel.

Now he’s back with a vengeance.

Kittel claimed his ninth stage win at cycling’s biggest race in a mass sprint Tuesday, as the fourth leg of the Tour took the peloton from the medieval town of Saumur to Limoges in central France.

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Kittel, who wore the race leader’s yellow jersey in 2013 and 2014, joined the Etixx Quick Step team from Giant-Alpecin for this season, replacing the departing Mark Cavendish. Kittel has been the dominant sprinter this year, claiming 11 victories, including back-to-back stage wins at the Giro d’Italia.

At the Tour, he got off to a disappointing start, getting beaten by Cavendish in the opening stage and missing out on a chance to wear the yellow jersey. But the German held off Frenchman Bryan Coquard’s surge in a photo finish in Limoges.

World champion Peter Sagan finished third on the 147.5-mile ride and kept the yellow jersey. Courtesy of a time bonus, he extended his lead over Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe to 12 seconds in the overall standings. Spaniard Alejandro Valverde is third, 14 seconds back.

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