Cavendish doubles up with sprint finish

Britain's Mark Cavendish, wearing the best sprinter's green jersey, is about to overhaul Germany's Andre Greipel to win the third stage of the Tour de France (Picture: Peter Dejong/AP).

Andre Greipel punched the air after the pair crossed the line, but the German’s celebrations proved misplaced as replays showed Cavendish took it by a whisker.

Cavendish won stage one of the Tour on Saturday to wear the yellow jersey for the first time in his career, and this latest success gives him 28 Tour stage wins, moving him level with Bernard Hinault in second on the all-time list behind Eddy Merckx on 34.

Peter Sagan finished fourth to retain the yellow jersey he took off Cavendish with victory in Sunday’s stage.

Cavendish had been an entire bike length behind Greipel 50 metres from the line, but found the speed to come around the Lotto-Soudal rider and claim a superb win by no more than an inch or two, with Brian Coquard of FDJ in third.

Cavendish’s win on Saturday had silenced critics who questioned whether the 31-year-old still had the beating of cycling’s premier sprinters, and this repeat performance will be further vindication for the Team Dimension Data rider.

“I normally know when I win or I lose,” Cavendish said.

“When I crossed the line, I kind of knew I got it, but anything can happen.”

Chris Froome finished near the front of the pack, 22nd on the day, still 14 seconds off yellow.

It was a long and often slow day as the peloton travelled 223.5km from Granville to Angers – a stage second in length only to today’s mammoth 237.5km trek from Saumur to Limoges in this year’s Tour.

With Sagan in yellow and his Tinkoff team controlling the peloton, they kept the pace slow to aid their leader Alberto Contador. The Spaniard, a two-time winner of the Tour, suffered two crashes in as many days on the opening stages.

The slow pace allowed solo breakaway rider Armindo Fonseca to quickly establish a lead of more than 11 minutes as he rode on home roads, although it slowly ticked down.

When the pack drew within five minutes of him, Direct-Energie’s Thomas Voeckler bridged across to him, and the two led the race on the approach to Angers before being swallowed up 8km from home.