John Degenkolb sprinted to fourth on stage 7 of the Tour de France. Mark Cavendish won the stage and Christopher Froome is the new owner of the yellow jersey, leading the general classification.

It was a traditional bunch sprint scenario today at stage 7 of the Tour de France. Five riders escaped early in the stage and the bunch controlled the gap until the finale. With 11km left the bunch swallowed up the breakaway and the sprint was prepared at high speed.

Mark Cavendish (Ettix – Quick Step) won the stage and took the third victory for his team this week. With a fourth place on today’s stage, John Degenkolb takes his fourth top-10 finish this Tour. It was the last bunch sprint before the peloton heads to tomorrow’s uphill finish on the Mur de Bretagne, the team time trial on Sunday and the mountain stages next week.

Christopher Froome (Team Sky) regains his lead in the overall classification after Tony Martin broke his collarbone in yesterday’s crash and did not start today. Because of that, Warren Barguil moves up one place in the GC to 10th.

Coach Rudi Kema reflected on today’s sprint preparation: “We came to the front at 4 – 4.5km from the finish, which was good, and from there it was extremely fast. With 2km to go we made a small mistake to allow riders to pass our train at the right side of the road. As a result we lost each other.

“On the roundabout at 900m from the finish John [Degenkolb] lost some positions again and Ramon [Sinkeldam] tried to bring him with a strong effort but it was already too late as John [Degenkolb] started his sprint a bit too far from behind. We used our efforts too early so that accelerating wasn’t possible anymore when we needed it.”

John Degenkolb said: “I was in the front at the final kilometer and we were in good position to start the sprint. Unfortunately I lost some meters at the roundabout and could not get it back in the sprint. The positioning is key and has to be perfect if I want to make a good go for the win at the Tour.

“I am good enough to win, as I have been close already a few times. That last piece of the puzzle is still missing for now.”

Koen de Kort added: “For now we hope that John [Degenkolb] will strike in the difficult stages next week. The results so far are not bad at all but we are here to win a stage and we have not succeeded yet. We are coming closer and closer but it’s not perfect yet.”