Tour de France 2017: Marcel Kittel Sprints to 5th Stage Win in Stage 11

Marcel Kittel underlined his sprinting dominance with another stage win in Wednesday's Tour de France action, beating the bunch to the line in Stage 11.

The German strengthened his hold on the points classification, and with few flat stages left, he's the clear favourite to win the green jersey if he can make it to Paris.

Here's a look at the stage results, via the Inner Ring:

The current general classification:

Recap

As reported by the Tour's official Twitter account, the stage profile for Wednesday was flat, with a final bunch sprint expected before the high mountains:

Three riders formed the early break, but the peloton easily maintained control throughout the day, with barely a bump in the road to trouble the bunch.

Alberto Contador did face some adversity, suffering a puncture before crashing with a team-mate, per Trek-Segafredo's official Twitter account:

Dario Cataldo of Astana abandoned after another crash in the feed zone, and team-mate Jakob Fuglsang also needed help from the medical car before he could continue.

The peloton left it late to catch the leaders, with Maciej Bodnar clinging to his lead until the final kilometre. The inevitable bunch sprint followed, and Kittel once again blew past the opposition, to the frustration of his opponents.

As shared by Philousports-Yahoo, he had to make a huge final jump and had the other sprinters banging their handlebars:

Pau is often called the "Gateway to the Pyrenees," and it lives up to its name in this year's Tour. The riders will climb toward the ski station of Peyragudes on Thursday, one day ahead of the expected fireworks on Bastille Day.