Video: Greipel too early with celebration as Cavendish pips him

André Greipel of Lotto Soudal may have punched the air in triumph but it was Mark Cavendish of Dimension Data who got to the finish line first at the end of stage 3 of the Tour de France, above.

André Greipel thought he had won stage 3 of the Tour de France, raising his arm in triumph, but it was his rival Mark Cavendish who won out in a very tight finish.

The photofinish images had to be consulted several times before Dimension Data’s Cavendish was confirmed the winner ahead of Greipel.

The big German riding for Lotto Soudal got ahead of Cavendish on the run to the line, though the Manxman gained gradually in the kick for home and had millimetres to spare on the finish line after 224km from Granville to Angers.

Greipel said afterwards his gearing was a little high in what was a testing finale, with a slight kick up well inside the final kilometre.

And while he punched the air thinking he had won, he did so after crossing the finish line. It was not a case of his celebration costing him the stage.

Cavendish was delighted with his stage win – his second of this year’s race and his 28th on the race since the start of his career.

The Briton, who was wearing the green jersey today, is now equal with Bernard Hinault in the all-time Tour stage winners’ list.

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Only Eddy Merckx was won more, with 34 victories to his name. But Hinault and Merckx scored 21 and 17 of their victories in TTs.

There was no change in the overall today at the Tour, with Peter Sagan of Tinkoff still leading.

Dan Martin of Etixx-QuickStep was 32nd today on the same time as winner Cavendish and he retains his 10th place overall. He is just 14 seconds down on Sagan having finish 4th on yesterday’s stage 2.

Sam Bennett of Bora-Argon 18 is still nursing awful injuries for his high speed sprint finish crash on the opening stage. But he was 186th today, losing just 2:03 on what was a very slow day; hopefully a factor that can aid Bennett’s recovery.

Tomorrow’s 237.5km stage from Saumur to Limoges has just one climb – at cat 4 – and so can hopefully be a chance for Bennett to regroup a little more towards staying in the race.