The Tour de France bid farewell to Britain in style on Monday, with a dramatic bunch sprint in front of Buckingham Palace.
Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) outfought Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Mark Renshaw (Omega-Pharma-QuickStep), who finished second and third respectively.
It was his second stage victory of the race, following his win on the opening stage from Leeds to Harrogate.
The day's breakaway formed as soon as the flag dropped, and contained just two riders: Jean-Marie Bideau (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) and Jan Barta (NetApp-Endura).
By the time the riders had travelled 40 kilometres, the duo had gained over four minutes on the peloton.
Although Barta and Bideau put up a good fight, a group containing only two riders was never going to last the pace and they were eventually caught with six kilometres to go.
From there, the sprinters' teams set about leading their fastmen out in the hope of grabbing the stage win on one of the world's most recognisable roads.
Tom Veelers, John Degenkolb and Koen De Kort led out Kittel, who outpaced his rivals to take the win.
“In the last 500 meters, the biggest fight was already over,” he said.
“Before then it was really complicated to stay at the front. It wasn’t easy, it had started to rain and everyone was scared.
"The boys did a great job. It was hard to stay together as a team, and I got a bit lost, but Tom Veelers brought me back to the wheel of Koen De Kort.
"It was an amazing finish line, and I think also it was one of the fastest sprints of my career.”
Meanwhile, Astana's Vincenzo Nibali held onto the yellow jersey which he took with his win on Stage 2.
He said: “It was a beautiful sensation to wear the yellow jersey today, especially in front of so many people here in the UK.
"Now we are calm. It was a little bit nervous in the finale, but the rest of the day of was very nice.
"The team protected me well throughout the day, so that makes me calm.”
Tuesday's stage sees the Tour reach French soil for the first time this year, with the riders traversing the 163.5 kilometres between Le Touquet-Paris-Plage and Lille Métropole.