John Degenkolb won a dramatic stage 9 of the Tour de France, outsprinting yellow jersey holder Greg Van Avermaet late on.
ADVERTISEMENTJohn Degenkolb has won a dramatic ninth stage of the Tour de France.
It was a race in which cobbles caused chaos, with four-time winner Chris Froome crashing and Richie Porte abandoning the race with a suspected broken collar bone.
But German Degenkolb outsprinted the chasing pack to claim his first Tour stage victory, just beyond Greg van Averameat who retained the yellow jersey.
Yves Lampaert was also in the mix late on but had to settle for third.
World Champion Peter Sagan continued his good recent form - finishing further back in fifth.
On the overall leaderboard, Alejandro Valverde and Rafał Majka move into the top six.
The Tour pauses for its first rest day before stage ten on Tuesday (July 17).