It’s party time for loved-up Argos speed king Kittel
High and drei: Germany's Marcel Kittel celebrates his hat-trick
If there's a crash in the final few kilometres in this Tour de France then you can be sure that Marcel Kittel will be there to mop up the pieces and take the win.
Following victories on the opening day in Bastia and on Tuesday in Saint-Malo, the Argos-Shimano speedster secured his hat-trick in Tours with the best yet: a head-to-head win over the fastest urinal on two wheels, Mark Cavendish.
Before the Tour, Argos-Shimano made a series of videos with each of their riders giving a glimpse at "the person behind the rider".
Kittel's video is particularly interesting. You find out how he was initially a time triallist who was brought into the team as a lead-out man - but then started winning sprints, including four in the Tour of Poland in 2011.
"My goals for this year are simple," Kittel - dressed in a white t-shirt, denim jacket and trademark quiffed hair - says. "I want to be successful on the Tour. I want to come out of the Tour with a stage win, and when I think further I would like to take advantage of every possibility that I get as a sprinter to achieve success."
Well, the first is a given: Kittel has been an unqualified success on this Tour. He's been a success because he has three of what he was targeting - stage wins - and to achieve this success, he had indeed taken advantage of every scrap coming his way.
In stage one it was that huge pile-up that occurred just as the Orica-GreenEdge bus was extricating itself from the finish line gantry. In stage 10 it was a crash to his lead-out man Tom Veelers and the subsequent slowing of Cavendish. In stage 12 it was the nasty bike-tangle that did for three of Andre Greipel's Lotto train while holding up the Gorilla in the ensuing melee.
But saying Kittel only wins when his rivals are picking themselves up off the ground is doing the highly affable 25-year-old a huge disservice. Sure, Bastia was rather fortunate, but Saint-Malo required Kittel to come from behind to beat his country's national champion.
Then Tours on Thursday was the pick of the bunch: not only coming from behind to beat Cavendish, but to beat a Cavendish fired up by the lingering smell of urine in his nose, a Cavendish with a point to prove after his previous clash with Tom Veelers and the Argos train.
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It’s party time for loved-up Argos speed king Kittel