Marcel Kittel's Tour de France sprint supremacy continued on Monday as the German won stage three of the Tour de France on The Mall in London.
The 155-kilometre route from Cambridge was the third and final stage on UK soil ahead of the race's return to France and was always destined to end in a sprint finish.
The peloton raced near Mark Cavendish's Essex home, but the partisan crowd were deprived of the 25-times stage winner's presence by his withdrawal with a shoulder injury sustained on stage one in Harrogate.
Kittel won the first stage at the weekend
Kittel (Giant-Shimano) won four stages to Cavendish's two in the 2013 Tour and already has two wins from three stages a year on after triumphing on Saturday's opening day and again in front of Buckingham Palace, where he once again proved he is the new sprint king.
Peter Sagan (Cannondale) was second, with Cavendish's Omega Pharma-QuickStep team-mate Mark Renshaw third.
Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), who assumed the yellow jersey by winning in Sheffield on day two, finished safely in the bunch to retain the overall lead.
