Tour de France: Mark Cavendish claims 28th career stage win

Mark Cavendish of Great Britain claimed his 28th career stage win at the Tour de France, edging Andre Greipel in a dramatic sprint finish Monday.

Peter Sagan retained the yellow jersey and holds an eight-second lead after finishing fourth in the third stage race from Granville to Angers, France.

After two days of racing marred by several crashes in difficult weather conditions, the peloton took it easy early and rode at pedestrian pace in the Loire valley.

The 31-year-old Cavendish showed off his sprinting experience and finished first in a photo finish over Germany's Greipel, equaling France's Bernard Hinault's 28 stage wins.

Only Belgian Eddy Merckx remains ahead of Cavendish now with 34 stage wins.

"To be honest, when I started my career to think at any point that I'd be mentioned in the same sentence as Bernard Hinault or Eddy Merckx, it's more than I could have imagined," Cavendish said. "No way could I compare myself to the greats in any way."

At the finish line, Cavendish stretched out his bike to take the victory away from Greipel.

"I've won and lost by less than that before," Cavendish said. "I kind of thought I'd got it but you never know until it's confirmed. "I didn't get him with the sprint, I got him with the lunge, so I was pretty lucky with that."

Sagan of Slovakia finished just behind Frenchman Bryan Coquard to maintain his grip on the race leader's yellow jersey.

"Today was a very relaxing day for us because in the breakaway there was only one rider," Sagan said. "He went slow, we went slow also in the group -- it was nice. I was thinking in one moment that we would take a coffee, we had time. I saw a bar but afterwards there was no time."