Mark Cavendish bounced back from yesterday's disappointment by taking his second stage win at this year's Tour de France as he finished off impressive teamwork from his Omega Pharma-Quick Step in style by beating Peter Sagan (Cannondale) in a sprint from a 14-rider group. Saxo-Tinkoff made a late attack into the crosswinds and left Chris Froome (Sky) behind and the race leader ended up losing 1.10 to some of his major rivals. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) had extremely bad luck to puncture at a time where the race was full on and ended up losing almost 10 minutes.

Having realized that Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) is very difficult to beat in a head-to-head battle, Mark Cavendish decided that it was time to use a different tactic in today's almost completely flat 14th stage of the Tour de France from Tours to Saint-Armand-Montrond. Using his strong team to attack in the crosswinds, he left his big rival behind early in the stage and instead of the predicted sprint battle, the stage evolved into a drama.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) punctured out of the lead group and fell back into Kittel's group. A furious chase ensued but the Movistar team was not match to the powerful Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Belkin teams and ended up losing more than 10 minutes, thus seeing all his podium hopes dashed by virtue of extremely bad luck.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step had put most riders on their ropes and so Saxo-Tinkoff decided to take by the bull by the horns. The Danish team accelerated into another crosswind section and despite digging deep, race leader Chris Froome (Sky) was unable to make it into the 14-rider group that emerged.

From then on, it was a dramatic pursuit between Froome's group and the small 14-rider break which contained GC riders Alberto Contador, Roman Kreuziger (both Saxo-Tinkoff), Laurens Ten Dam, Bauke Mollema (both Belkin) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana). As they crossed the finish line, Froome had conceded 1.10 but it was enough for him to still enjoy a comfortable overall lead.

Peter Sagan and Cavendish had both made it into the front group and the stage win was played out in a direct duel between the two super sprinters. Cavendish paid back his teammates for their hard work by outsprinting the Slovakian, thus taking his 25th Tour de France stage win.

The 173km had been expected to be another easy one for the sprinters and when the race started, it followed the predictable script. Everybody knew that a break was doomed and when Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre) attacked, he was allowed to go clear.

Ruben Perez (Euskaltel), Yohann Gene (Europcar), Cyril Lemoine (Sojasun), Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) and Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil) joined the move and the sextet started to build up a gap. However, the sprint teams were unwilling to take any chances at all, and Omega Pharma-Quick Step started to chase almost immediately.

They were quickly joined by Lotto-Belisol and Argos-Shimano and Jerome Pineau, Frederik Willems and Albert Timmer started to rotate on the front. They allowed the gap to grow up to a little more than 3 minutes and then they stabilized it for a long time.

With 104km to go, the proceedings took an unexpected turn when the race hit a crosswind section. Omega Pharma-Quick Step had seen that Kittel was a little too far back in the group and so they put down the hammer. Gert Steegmans started off the action and for a little while, the entire team rotated on the front, Cavendish even taking turns himself.

Two big groups formed behind. The second one contained Kittel and Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) and most of the minor sprinters and GC riders like Mikel Nieve and Igor Anton (Euskaltel), Jose Serpa (Lampre) and Wout Poels (Vacansoleil) were also in there. A little further behind a group with Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) quickly fell far behind.

Argos-Shimano and Orica-GreenEdge started to chase hard while Belkin, Cannondale and Saxo-Tinkoff both decided to contribute to the pace in the front group. The gap went up to 45 seconds but when the front group reached a small city with no crosswind, they slowed down, and the advantage came down to just 20 seconds. At that point it seemed as though the junction would be made

However, Omega Pharma-Quick Step had no intention of giving up and so they once again put down the hammer. Despite the hard effort by Orica-GreenEdge and Argos-Shimano, the gap quickly went up to more than a minute and for a long time it stabilized at around that mark.

The action did not do any good to the breakaway and with 96km to go, they were picked up by the first group which was still led by Omega Pharma-Quick Step with occasional contributions from Belkin. Behind, Svein Tuft took some huge turns in an attempt to bring Goss back into contention.

All the big GC riders were all in the first group but that all changed with 86km to go. Valverde had a rear wheel puncture and received a wheel from his teammate Jonathan Castroviejo. Ruben Plaza, Imanol Erviti and Andrey Amador were all there to support their captain who was 35 seconds back when he started his chase.

However, there were no cars in between the two groups and that made the task much bigger. Jose Joaquin Rojas also fell back to assist and a little later the team also decided to sacrifice Rui Costa - 10th overall - leaving just Nairo Quintana in the front group. Boeckmans made another small attack but was quickly brought back.

Valverde and his teammates got to within 12 seconds of the front group before the riders started to blow up. When Plaza fell off, they started to quickly lose ground and decided to wait for the Kittel group.

Movistar, Orica-GreenEdge, Argos-Shimano, Vacansoleil, Euskaltel, Lampre and Markel Irizar all combined forces but up ahead Belkin saw an opportunity to move Mollema into second and so they put their entire team - except Mollema himself - on the front to assist Omega Pharma-Quick Step. Surprisingly, they were also assisted by the Europcar duo of Jerome Cousin and Pierre Rolland who had very little to gain.

Rolland moved ahead to pick up the only point on the day's categorized climb before falling back into the main group. Behind, the Valverde group kept losing time and when they were 1.40 behind, it appeared as though it was all over.

However, Omega Pharma-Quick Step loosened the grip and suddenly Valverde started to get closer. The gap fell to 40 seconds, and the Valverde group even split up due to the hard pace as a small group went a little ahead.

That was when the peloton hit another exposed crosswind stretch and Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Belkin once again opened up the gas. From then on, the gap started to grow rapidly while the entire Movistar team almost blew up.

Rolland punctured and tried to get back with the help of teammates Gene and Cyril Gautier but he had no chance and so the KOM leader fell back into the Valverde group. The Europcar now also contributed to the chase but most of the riders behind had now blown up, making it evident that the junction would never be made.

With 60,5km to go, Cavendish, Sagan and Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) went head-to-head in the intermediate sprint, the German edging out the Brit and the Slovakian. They immediately fell back into the peloton which had now become substantially smaller as riders had fallen off in the most recent crosswinds section.

Some of those riders were Peter Kennaugh, Richie Porte and David Lopez which meant that Froome now only had Ian Stannard, Kantantsin Siutsou and Geraint Thomas to support him. That did not appear to play any crucial role but that all changed with 31km to go.

In another crosswind section, Daniele Bennati hit the front with 5 of his Saxo-Tinkoff teammates in his wheel and thus drew clear a small 14-rider group. His teammates Contador, Kreuziger, Michael Rogers, Nicolas Roche and Matteo Tosatto were all there as were Mollema, Ten Dam, Sylvain Chavanel, Niki Terpstra, Cavendish, Sagan, Maciej Bodnar and Fuglsang.

Froome tried desperately to get into the move but he missed it by a few meters. Having fallen back into the peloton, he asked teammates Thomas, Siutsou and Stannard to chase and the Sky riders were joined by BMC (working for Cadel Evans ), Katusha  (working for Joaquin Rodriguez) and Lotto (working for Greipel).

For a long time the gap was stable at around 10 seconds but as Stannard and Siutsou both blew up, the front group started to open up their advantage. More teams started to chase behind as Ag2r (working for Jean-Christophe Peraud), FDJ (working for William Bonnet) and Garmin-Sharp (working for Daniel Martin) all took up the mantle.

That was, however, not enough and with the Saxo-Tinkoff riders as the main workhorses, the gap constantly went up. Meanwhile, Sagan and Cavendish both prepared to sprint it out for the stage win.

With 1,5km to go, Cavendish sent his teammate Terpstra up the road but Sagan's teammate Bodnar closed it down. Instead, Chavanel went to the front with Sagan and Cavendish in his wheel but when the Frenchman stopped his effort, it was a little too early for Sagan to start his sprint.

He stopped for a while, allowing Cavendish to put down the hammer, and the Manxman quickly put daylight into his rival. He crossed the finish line in emphatic style to take his 25th Tour stage win.

Behind, the yellow jersey group was led across the line by Greipel who took an easy sprint win while Froome ended up losing 1.10. The Valverde group had given up and ended up losing almost 10 minutes.

Mollema moves into 2nd and Contador into 3rd but Froome still holds a comfortable 2.28 lead over the Dutchman. He takes that advantage into tomorrow's lumpy stage to Lyon and doubtlessly hopes for a more calm day than today's hugely dramatic one.

Starting at 14.00, you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

Result:

1. Mark Cavendish 3.40.08

2. Peter Sagan

3. Bauke Mollema

4. Jakob Fuglsang

5. Niki Terpstra

6. Roman Kreuziger

7. Alberto Contador

8. Laurens Ten Dam

9. Sylvain Chavanel +0.06

10. Michael Rogers +0.08

General classification:

1. Chris Froome 51.00.30

2. Bauke Mollema +2.28

3. Alberto Contador +2.45

4. Roman Kreuziger +2.48

5. Laurens Ten Dam +3.01

6. Jakob Fuglsang +4.39

7. Michal Kwiatkowski +4.44

8. Nairo Quintana +5.18

9. Jean-Christophe Peraud +5.39

10. Joaquin Rodriguez +5.48

Points classification:

1. Peter Sagan 357

2. Mark Cavendish 273

3. Andre Greipel 217

4. Marcel Kittel 177

5. Alexander Kristoff 157

Mountains classification:

1. Pierre Rolland 50

2. Chris Froome 33

3. Richie Porte 28

4. Nairo Quintana 26

5. Mikel Nieve 21

Youth classification:

1. Michal Kwiatkowski 51.05.14

2. Nairo Quintana +0.34

3. Andrew Talansky +8.27

4. Romain Bardet +15.51

5. Tejay Van Garderen +33.24

Teams classification:

1. Team Saxo-Tinkoff  152.22.21

2. Belkin +2.32

3. Ag2r +10.37

4. Radioshack +14.47

5. Movistar +16.14