Stage four saw riders complete a lumpy 215km trip from Abbeville to Rouen – the longest stage of the 99th Tour de France to date.
With only moderate winds blowing along the often blustery Alabaster coastline and sun beaming down on helmets, conditions were ideal. Well, for a while.
Clouds rolled in with 50km remaining, bringing with them the patchy rain that threatened to become a mainstay on stage one. Fortunately, the bad weather cleared before the finish.
Even with four categorised climbs dotting the race map, all of them category four, the stage was always expected to end in a bunch sprint. And it did, despite the peloton being torn apart by a dramatic crash with 2.6km left.
Among those prevented from contesting the finish were keynote sprinters Mark Cavendish (Sky Pro Cycling) and Mark Renshaw (Rabobank), who both hit the deck hard.
Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) survived the carnage to score a much-deserved stage win ahead of Italian veteran Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD), Tom Veelers (Argos-Shimano) and Australian Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE).
Earlier, a three-man breakaway built a significant advantage over the rest of the field.
Having featured in the break on each of the first three road stages, King of the Mountains (KOM) leader Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) stayed in the main pack. The Dane’s lead in the classification was in no danger.
Instead, it was David Moncoutie (Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne), Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) and Anthony Delaplace (Saur-Sojasun) who made their way off the front.
At one point the trio’s advantage threatened to balloon out of control, peaking at 8’40”, before RadioShack-Nissan decided enough was enough and started to work.
Moncoutie, a four-time winner of the KOM at the Vuelta a Espana, and Delaplace took the honours on two climbs each. Both Frenchmen move into equal second in the battle for polka dots, seven points behind Morkov.
Arashiro led the breakaway through the intermediate sprint at Fécamp, unchallenged by Delaplace and Moncoutie.
Some six minutes later, given the 13 points still on offer for the next rider, the sprint point was keenly contested by the remainder of the field. Cavendish crossed the checkpoint in fourth, just ahead of Goss and Renshaw.
Tomorrow’s stage five from Rouen to Saint-Quentin will have been earmarked by the sprinters pre-Tour.
The 197km journey through northern France features no categorised climbs, but if recent intermediate sprints are anything to go by, the race for the green jersey checkpoint in Breteuil (after 109km) will be intense.
The final kilometre is slightly uphill with an average gradient of 2.8%, which will again bring Sagan into the mix for what could be his third stage victory at this year’s Tour.
Cavendish, Goss and Greipel, sprinters in the purest sense, will also fancy their chances.
Tour de France Stage 4 Results
Rider, Team, Points
1. GREIPEL Andre, LOtime trialO-BELISOL, 05h 18′ 32″
2. PETACCHI Alessandro, LAMPRE-ISD, 05h 18′ 32″+ 00′ 00″
3. VEELERS Tom, ARGOS-SHIMANO, 05h 18′ 32″+ 00′ 00″
4. GOSS Matthew Harley, ORICA-GREENEDGE, 05h 18′ 32″+ 00′ 00″
5. SAGAN Peter, LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE, 05h 18′ 32″+ 00′ 00″
6. CANTWELL Jonathan, SAXO BANK-TINKOFF BANK, 05h 18′ 32″+ 00′ 00″
7. IMPEY Daryl, ORICA-GREENEDGE, 05h 18′ 32″+ 00′ 00″
8. BOECKMENS Kris, VACANSOLEIS-DCM, 05h 18′ 32″+ 00′ 00″
9. BOASSON HAGEN Edvald, SKY PRO CYCLING, 05h 18′ 32″+ 00′ 00″
10. PEREZ MORENO Ruben, EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI, 05h 18′ 32″+ 00′ 00″
Tour de France Points Classification
Rider, Team, Points
1. SAGAN Peter, LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE, 147
2. GOSS Matthew Harley, ORICA-GREENEDGE, 92
3. GREIPEL Andre, LOtime trialO-BELISOL, 87
4. CAVENDISH Mark, SKY PRO CYCLING, 86
5. BOASSON HAGEN Edvald, SKY PRO CYCLING, 81
Tour de France KOM Classification
Rider, Team, Points
1. MORKOV Michael, SAXO BANK-TINKOFF BANK, 9
2. BASSO Ivan, LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE, 2
3. SAGAN Peter, LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE, 2
Tour de France Overall Standings
Rider, Team, Time, Gaps
1. CANCELLARA Fabian, RADIOSHACK-NISSAN, 20h 04′ 02″
2. WIGGINS Bradley, SKY PROCYCLING, 20h 04′ 09″+ 00′ 07″
3. CHAVANEL Sylvain, OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK-STEP, 20h 04′ 09″+ 00′ 07″
4. VAN GARDEREN Tejay, BMC RACING, 20h 04′ 12″ + 00′ 10″
5. BOASSON HAGEN Edvald, SKY PRO CYCLING, 20h 04′ 13″+ 00′ 11″
6. MENCHOV Denis, KATUSHA, 20h 04′ 15″+ 00′ 13″
7. EVANS Cadel, BMC RACING, 20h 04′ 19″ + 00′ 17″
8. NIBALI Vincenzo, LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE, 20h 04′ 20″+ 00′ 18″
9. HESJEDAL Ryder, GARMIN-SHARP, 20h 04′ 20″+ 00′ 18″
10. KLODEN Andreas, RADIOSHACK-NISSAN, 20h 04′ 21″+ 00′ 19″
Bones506
Roar Guru
I am well on my way to top of the pops but Kit is killing it with the articles. Respect. Cav will be feeling the effects of yesterday when he jumps today. Riding hurt is hard as your body is trying to focus on getting fresh but is sapping energy to your wounds. Further to this- sleeping with road rash hurts. I don't expect Cav to be at his best tomorrow. Perhaps the day after. Looking at Orica and Goss, along with Griepek and Sagan.
Zee Ko
Roar Rookie
Sorry but unless they want me at expert level, I'm committed elsewhere.
Kit Harvey
Roar Guru
Such cynicism, Zee. It's fun - get involved!
Zee Ko
Roar Rookie
I've been told it's a horrendous painful process. Kit's just found a way to enter his own personal nirvana and ascend fairly safely into the higher levels.
Kit Harvey
Roar Guru
A number of new faces in the top ten that did well to make it into that severely depleted bunch contesting the sprint! Cantwell, Impey, Boeckmans. Great to see.
Kit Harvey
Roar Guru
Hi Tony, To gain status you need to sign up via the website and make yourself a profile - that automatically qualifies you as a rookie. Here are the details of the various statuses: http://www.theroar.com.au/author-levels-descriptions/ Hope that helps.
Tony Reeckman
Guest
Hey Kit How do I become a Guru? Go sit in a cave for a couple of years? I suppose you have to start as a Rookie first,as a matter of fact I don't seem to have any Status at all.
Tony Reeckman
Guest
He also then had to go all out from nearly a standing start, to get onto the back of the front group who were going pretty hard at that stage.Would love to see his SRM data from that.If he'd have hesitated for a second they would have been gone.
Zee Ko
Roar Rookie
My bad, I didn't spot that. The man's in tip-top form then.
Sean Lee
Expert
Just watched the video of the crash....very nasty. Cav was definately stunned. I know it was a reduced field contesting the sprint but Lotto Belisol looked good leading out Greipel. Good to see Jonathan Cantwell get a top 10 finish as well!
Kit Harvey
Roar Guru
I think that Cavendish will definitely be forced to reassess where he is at with regards to completing the Tour, having crashed on yesterday's stage. He looked pretty banged up - it is really a matter of whether he is willing to risk further crashes that could potentially force him to pull out of an Olympics road race that is his to lose. Personally, I think he'll hang around for a while longer - the next two stages should be won by sprinters. But finish in Paris? I still don't think so.
Kit Harvey
Roar Guru
Sagan was right on the wheel of Cavendish, he swerved and managed to dodge Cav as the Manx plummeted to the ground. It was a miraculous piece of work, credit to him!
Sean Lee
Expert
Hey Kit, do you think the crash will affect Cavendish's desire to continue in the race? I've been of the opinion that he would finish the Tour such is his competitiveness, but now that he has hit the deck and is probably feeling quite sore I've changed my mind. What do you think?
Zee Ko
Roar Rookie
Or the fact that he was right out front of the peloton?
Zee Ko
Roar Rookie
Hahaha just read his post-race tweets. Something about bouncing well once again. Hilarious.
SilverStreakCycling
Roar Rookie
That Sagan managed to avoid involvement in that crash is evidence of his sublime bike-handling skills!
Kit Harvey
Roar Guru
Cavendish was right at the front of the crash, his helmet was decimated - lots of bouncing around. Here is a video that features the incident: http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/video/2253328035/Tour-de-France-Stage-4-highlights
Zee Ko
Roar Rookie
And Bernie Eisel attempting to look brave during the interview with that nasty cut above his eye, telling the interviewer he was fine. Was that Cavendish who was bouncing around the ground right in front of the crash during the slow-mo replays?
Kit Harvey
Roar Guru
Tomorrow looks ragingly uneventful upon first glance - no climbs, one sprint point. But, as with anything TDF there is always one or two things that add extra interest, like the slight ascent to the finish line. It has Sagan written all over it. Stage 6 from Epernay to Metz is another flat stage - Cavendish and the pure sprinters will prefer the finish on that stage to the one we'll see tonight. Stage 7 (Saturday) features the first genuine climbs at this year's Tour, but it is still very early going in the context of the race. The summit finish on a category 1 climb (with two cat 3s also on the stage) should see the first major changes in time gaps, Cancellara is likely to lose his yellow jersey.
Kit Harvey
Roar Guru
Yes, it looked terrible. Cavendish's body flat out smashed into the tarmac, Renshaw did not fare much better. Still yet to hear of any withdrawals that came out of it, but no one appeared to be badly hurt.