Marcel Kittel wins Tour de France stage in photo finish

Marcel Kittel won a stage for the third time in this year's Tour de France but it was impossible to tell with a set of eyes.

Or even with photographic evidence.

The German was declared the winner of the 133-mile Stage 7 into Nuits-Saint-Georges in a tight conclusion in which the finish-line photo showed the bike wheels of Kittel and Edvald Boasson Hagen arriving at the same exact moment.

The determination by the judges was that Kittel won by 0.0003 seconds.

The situation didn't leave room for either ride to celebrate when crossing the line.

"I had no clue whether I won or not on the finish line. I just thought, 'This is going to be close.' I tried to make myself three meters longer," Kittel said. "Actually, at 100 meters, when I was on Boasson Hagen's wheel and we came around the corner, I thought it was still 200 meters to go from there, but it was only 120 or something.

"Then I knew I just had to hope the door was open on the right side and that I could pass him. It was just enough."

The stage win was the second in a row for Kittel, who has won 12 Tour de France stages in his career.

"It's an incredible success," Kittel said. "I'm really proud of it. I'm in great shape. I'm super happy that the team supported me so well today. I think we did a good lead-out. We believed in this chance, in this victory. It's just crazy."

Boasson Hagen was happy with his performance despite some agonizing feelings over the narrow margin of finish.

"It's a pity I couldn't finish it off," the Norwegian said. "However, I'm happy with this second place even though I would have liked to take the win. I'm not a pure sprinter, so to be able to be up there on these flat stages gives me a lot of confidence for the remaining part of the Tour."

Britain's Chris Froome remains in possession of the yellow jersey as the race leader. Froome leads country mate Geraint Thomas by 12 seconds and Italy's Fabio Aru is 14 seconds behind in third.

"It was definitely a day for the fast guys today, it was more about staying out of trouble, staying up front," Froome said. "There was a lot of talk about crosswinds, so it was critical to be up front, but it never really became tough.

"It was one of those days to tick off for us. Heading into the weekend, obviously we have some big mountains now, so our focus moves toward that."