Alexander Kristoff got close to a third Tour de France stage victory when he finished third in today's stage 19. The Norwegian proved to be the fastest in the sprint for second but as he was slightly boxed in he had to settle for third.

A solo win and a crash with less than 3 km to go all played into the action in Friday’s stage 19 of the 2014 Tour de France as the biggest Grand Tour of the season nears the end of a three-week epic battle. Team Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff stayed close to the front out of trouble and worked with others to bring back Ramunas Navardauskas but it wasn’t possible to catch the Lithuanian rider and Kristoff sprinted to third in the reduced field sprint alongside John Degenkolb at seven seconds.

"On the final climb I was ok," he said. "I was not in trouble at any time so I managed to be in the front group for the last kilometers. Navardauskas attacked on the climb and the group could not catch him, but I still tried to do my best in the sprint.

"The team was very strong today and in the final Luca (Paolini) once again did a perfect job. With 400 meters to go I was on the wheel of Trentin and then I followed Petacchi.

"Unfortunately in the last meters I was boxed in and did not have a clear way ahead but I felt strong and tried my sprint, finishing in third. We still have one more sprint to go – the last day in Paris."