Tuesday 5 July 2016 20:06, UK
Mark Cavendish admitted his own poor positioning was to blame for missing out on victory on stage four of the Tour de France.
The 31-year-old Manxman went into the stage as one of the favourites after winning on a similar uphill sprint on stage three, but he became boxed in with 400m to go and could only finish eighth.
Marcel Kittel beat Bryan Coquard in a photo finish to claim the ninth Tour stage win of his career and first this year.
"I was in the wrong position," Cavendish told ITV Sport. "It was a bit sketchy in the final. About 5km to go, I nearly crashed on a right-hand corner. I lost my lead-out. They were coming up in ones and two and I didn't know who to follow. I didn't want to hit it too early.
"I thought I would be on Kittel's wheel; I thought that would be the best one. In the last 1km I was in, but the next thing it was survival, trying to dodge the guys coming back. Instead of concentrating on the sprint, I was concentrating on getting around the lead-out guys.
"It's my own fault. Today I didn't get it right."
Wednesday's fifth stage from Limoges to Le Lioran has a rolling finish, but Cavendish will get another chance to claim the 29th Tour win of his career on Thursday's sixth stage from Arpajon-sur-Cere to Montauban.
However, he revealed he will first need to recover from Tuesday's 237.5km marathon to stand any chance of victory.
"I'm a little bit tired now," he added. "It was a long old day that."
Find out more about stage four route in a our race guide and follow the stage with our live blog from 12pm BST.
