Marcel Kittel (Etixx-Quickstep) finally took the Tour de France stage victory he had been fighting for, but this one came in a photo finish that put him just millimetres ahead of Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie).
Kittel expressed relief, saying "it feels like my first stage win again".
Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) was third, keeping the race lead and perhaps more importantly moving him back into the lead of the points classification over Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) with the mountains of Massif Central looming ahead on Wednesday.
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