Kittel wins his fourth stage at the Tour de France

Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) has won the 10th stage of the Tour de France, easily beating his rivals

It was time for the peloton to hit the road again after the first rest day, with a fairly flat 178 km long stage between Perigueux and Bergerac.

With Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) and Arnaud Demare (FDJ) out of the race, it was time for other sprinters to challenge Marcel Kittel at the end of the stage.

Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Oscaro) established the day's breakaway and gained more than five minutes on the peloton.

They were finally caught with seven kilometres to go. All the teams with remaining sprinters; Katusha-Alpecin, LottoNL-Jumbo, Direct Energie and Lotto-Soudal went to the front to control the race.

Kittel found himself without an organised train but found space to launch his sprint and proved to be the fastest, out sprinting John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo), Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Rudiger Selig (Bora-hansgrohe) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin).

This is the fourth stage win for the Kittel in this year's 104th edition of the Tour de France.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished safely in the bunch and continues to wear the yellow jersey as race leader just ahead of Fabio Aru and Romain Bardet.

Tomorrow's stage 11 on Wednesday July 12 2017 from Eymet to Pau is a fairly flat 202 kms, another bunch sprint is expected - before stage 12 hits the Pyreneen mountains.

2017 Tour de France Stage 10 Top Ten Results

1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 4:01:00
2 John Degenkolb (Ger) Trek-Segafredo
3 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
4 Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
5 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin
6 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
7 Daniel Mclay (GBr) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro
8 Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Bel) Wanty - Groupe Gobert
9 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
10 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data

2017 Tour de France GC after Stage 10

1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 42:27:29
2 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:18
3 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:51
4 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:55
5 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:37
6 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:44
7 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:02:02
8 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:02:13
9 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky 0:03:06
10 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:03:53