Mark Cavendish won the SterZLMToer in Holland this afternoon, depite Marcel Kittel winning the final stage.
The World Champion was in the leaders yellow jersey going into the final 163km stage from Schijndel to Boxtel and it was a stage that saw Gregory Henderson (LTB), Dries Hollanders (MET), Iljo Keisse (OPQ) and Aliaksandr Kuchynski, the best placed rider at 1.02 behind Cavendish, the first to escape the field of 136 riders.
Dries Hollanders won the first sprint of the day before the quartet's lead went out to 2.30. This started off the alarm bells and Team Sky, Argos-Shimano and Rabobank worked to try and reel them in.
The lead was cut to 1.40 by the time they reached Gerwen and with 40kms to go, the lead was down to fifty seconds.
As the race headed towards a final lap of Boxtel, the lead was thirty seconds.
Dries Hollanders took the second sprint before he and Henderson went for victory with ten kilometres to go. Their attempt proved futile as they were soon swallowed up by the Team Sky led peloton.
The speed ramped up to 60kmph as Argos Shimano, Lotto, Rabobank and Team Sky all battled it out at the front, trying to get their sprinters in the best position.
It was Argos Shimano who triumphed with Marcel Kittel taking the win by more than a bike length ahead of Renshaw and Roelandts for his seventh win of the season.
Cavendish finished to win the race overall by eight seconds from Lars Boom.
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