Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) took over the sprint throne in today's 12th stage of the Tour de France as he simply proved faster than Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in a head-to-head battle. A big crash saw Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) fall out of contention while Chris Froome (Sky) escaped the carnage to safely defend his yellow jersey.

Ever since he won his first Tour de France stage win in 2008, Mark Cavendish has enjoyed the position as the leading sprinter in the world's biggest bike race. While he may have missed out on some occasions, he has very rarely been beaten when he gets a clean run to the line.

He may now have to accept to step down from his throne as Marcel Kittel simply proved faster than the Manxman in today's 12th stage of the race. Having been delivered perfectly to the line, the Brit simply not had the speed to match the powerful German who beat him in a very close photo finish.

The sprint had been dramatically impacted by a big crash that brought down most of Andre Greipel's world-famous Lotto-Belisol sprint train. While the German himself managed to avoid the carnage, he had to unclip and was unable to contest the sprint.

Having hidden behind for some time due to the strong headwind, the sprint trains finally went into action with 4,8km to go. Orica-GreenEdge hit the front and Svein Tuft strung out the peloton with teammates Stuart O'Grady, Daryl Impey and sprinter Matthew Goss in his wheel.

Moments later, the peloton entered a roundabout and the powerful Canadian simply exited it too fast. He slid out but luckily he brought no other riders down. Instead, it was O'Grady who continued leading the peloton into the headwin.

With 3,9km to go, Omega Pharma-Quick Step decided it was time to take control and so Sylvain Chavanel moved ahead with the entire train in his wheel. Next in line was Michal Kwiatkowski while Argos-Shimano now started to move up to bring Kittel into position.

For some time, the two trains went head-to-head with no one able to take control while Lotto-Belisol still hid themselves a little further behind. Disaster struck just as they had passed the 3km to go banner when the entire train of the Belgian team came down in a huge crash.

Greipel swerved left and managed to stay upright but as he had to unclip, he would play no role in the sprint. Up ahead, the battle was still on as Tony Martin and John Degenkolb were now both trying to take control.

The latter came out triumphant and as they passed the flamme rouge, it was Argos-Shimano in control. Koen De Kort took a massive turn on the front with Kittel in his wheel.

That was when Matteo Trentin opened up the Omega Pharma-Quick Step but Gert Steegmans hesitated and allowed Kittel to get into the Italian's wheel. Instead, the powerful Belgian opened up the lead-out in the other side of the road and Kittel managed to get into Cavendish's wheel, the Manxman being given a perfect lead-out by his teammate.

Cavendish opened up his sprint but when Kittel put down the hammer, he started to move up. As they crossed the finish line, no one celebrated as it was a very close finish. The photo did, however, leave no doubt over Kittel's win and so the German took his third ever stage win.

Chris Froome (Sky) stayed safe in the hectic finale and crossed the line in 14th to safely defend his  yellow jersey. He hopes to get through tomorrow's flat stage unscathed while the sprinters hopes to once again go head-to-head.

Starting at 14.00, you can follow the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

Gavazzi attacks

The long 218km stage from Fougeres to Tours was completely flat and was perfectly suited to the sprinters. Only a strong crosswinds had the potential to pose any danger for the GC riders.

Everybody knew that the sprinters would not let this opportunity slip away and so there was no big fight to get into the early break. When Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) attacked at the 3,5km mark, he was joined by Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil), Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun), Romain Sicard (Euskaltel) and Manuele Mori (Lampre) in what would be the day's early breakaway.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step take control

The quintet was allowed to build up a gap of a massive 9 minutes before Omega Pharma-Quick Step started to control the peloton. They were later joined by Lotto-Belisol and Argos-Shimano, and Sky also started to chase.

At some point, the peloton started to get a little nervous as they hit a crosswind section but early on it was clear that the wind would not be strong enough to split up the peloton. Hence, the peloton once again calmed down but the gap had come down to 6 minutes as a consequence.

8 riders lead the chase

For most of the day, 8 riders shared the pace-setting duties. Johannes Fröhlinger (Argos-Shimano), Simon Geschke (Argos-Shimano), Frederik Willems (Lotto-Belisol), Bart De Clercq (Lotto-Belisol), Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Jerome Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), David Lopez (Sky) and Kanstantsin Siutsou (Sky) swapped turns on the front and gradually brought down the gap.

A cross-tailwind saw the peloton speed along at more than 45km/h but despite the high pace, it was an extremely calm day. There were no great worries and the GC riders could allow themselves to stay away from the front end of the peloton for quite some time.

Action at the intermediate sprint

The only real action happened with 52km to go when it was time to contest the intermediate sprint. Flecha attacked but Gavazzi was quick to respond and had no trouble outsprinting the veteran Spaniard. Behind, Steegmans led Cavendish out for the sprint and he narrowly held off Greipel. Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil) had boxed in Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and the Slovakian was furious as he had to settle fort 4th behind Cavendish, Greipel and Boeckmans.

The gap had now come down to 2 minutes but as the peloton took a short breather to regroup, the advantage grew back up to 2.30. Argos-Shimano, Lotto-Belisol and Omega Pharma-Quick Step did, however, quickly start to chase once again and with 30km to go, the gap was only 1 minute.

Sicard is left behind

Sicard had fallen off the pace at the sprint and was now back in the peloton. Flecha decided it was time to up the pace but his attack had no success.

Delaplace, Gavazzi, Delaplace again and Mori sldo tried their hands but Flecha closed everything down. As the gap was still 50 seconds, they decided to once again cooperate.

The sprint teams prepare the sprint

Pineau and Velits were now the only ones chasing in the peloton and with 18km to go, they decided to stop their effort. Sky and Saxo-Tinkoff formed trains in either side of the road for a little while but for the next 10km, it was Orica-GreenEdge, Saxo-Tinkoff and FDJ who led the peloton, Jeremy Roy, Michael Albasini, Simon Clarke, Matteo Tosatto and Daniele Bennati all doing a huge amount of work.

With 10km to go, Flecha attacked and only Gavazzi responded. Mori fell back into the peloton and after a short try to chase, Delaplace also fell back. When Flecha accelerated again a little further down the road, Gavazzi also gave up and the Spaniard was now the lone leader.

Saxo-Tinkoff now took control in the peloton and with 6km to go, they reeled in Flecha. A little later, it was time for Orica-GreenEdge to kick into action, thus setting off the hectic final.

Result:

1. Marcel Kittel 4.49.49

2. Mark Cavendisj

3. Peter Sagan

4. Alexander Kristoff

5. Roberto Ferrari

6. Daryl Impey

7. Jose Joaquin Rojas

8. Yohann Gene

9. Juan Jose Lobato

10. Samuel Dumoulin

General classification:

1. Chris Froome 47.19.13

2. Alejandro Valverde +3.25

3. Bauke Mollema +3.37

4. Alberto Contador +3.54

5. Roman Kreuziger +3.57

6. Laurens Ten Dam +4.10

7. Michal Kwiatkowski +4.44

8. Nairo Quintana +5.18

9. Rui Costa +5.37

10. Jean-Christophe Peraud +5.39

Points classification:

1. Peter Sagan 307

2. Mark Cavendish 211

3. Andre Greipel 195

4. Marcel Kittel 177

5. Alexander Kristoff 157

Mountains classification:

1. Pierre Rolland 49

2. Chris Froome 33

3. Richie Porte 28

4. Nairo Quintana 26

5. Mikel Nieve 21

Youth classification:

1. Michal Kwiatkowski 47.23.57

2. Nairo Quintana +0.34

3. Romain Bardet +6.53

4. Andrew Talansky +8.27

5. Thibaut Pinot +31.43

Teams classification:

1. Movistar 141.17.14

2. Team Saxo-Tinkoff  +4.34

3. Belkin +6.06

4. Ag2r +11.53

5. Radioshack +16.03