Photo gallery: 2016 Tour de France, Stage 14

Photography by Cor Vos, Jered & Ashley Gruber, Kristof Ramon

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) sprinted to his fourth stage win of the 2016 Tour de France on Saturday in Villars-les-Dombes Parc des Oiseaux. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) finished second with the green jersey of Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) in third.

The win marks the 30th stage win at the Tour for “The Manx Missile,” moving him within five victories of surpassing Eddy Merckx for the most Tour stage wins all-time. The victory is also the fifth stage victory for Team Dimension Data at this year’s Tour, after Steve Cummings also captured Stage 7.

“I knew Marcel would be on the front early. I assessed with two kilometres to go, that we only had four guys, and that’s not enough into a headwind,” Cavendish said. “In fact, the guys on his team did a brilliant job. [Fabio] Sabatini [Ettix-QuickStep] did more than I thought he would be able to do in a headwind there at the finish. He was really good, but Kittel was ultimately left too long on the front. It was a case of just waiting until he lost his peak speed, and then jumping around him in the final.”

Cavendish’s win was marked by a touch of controversy, as Marcel Kittel (Ettix-QuickStep) asserted that Cavendish had deviated from his line and impeded Kittel. And while there was truth to that, Kittel, who had been passed at that point, had also deviated in the direction of Cavendish. The race jury reviewed the footage, and the result stood.

Read the full stage 14 race report, highlight video and results here.