Tour de France LIVE stage four: Fernando Gaviria wins sprint photo finish from Peter Sagan and Andre Greipel
Stage four offers another chance for sprinters like Mark Cavendish, Fernando Gaviria and Peter Sagan to shine while the general classification contenders like Chris Froome, Richie Porte and the rest will just be hoping to keep out of harm's way following the choas of the opening two stages.
After yesterday's stage-three team time trial, Greg van Avermaet is the man in the yellow jersey, the BMC rider who will aim to defend that status for as long as possible through the coming days, but will face plenty of challenges no doubt, not least from Team Sky and Geraint Thomas, their foremost rider in the overall standings.
Although today's 195km route from La Baule to Sarzeau via a jaunt into the heart of picturesque Brittany is a relatively flat one, the stage finishes on a slight uphill drag for around 2km which could take out the short-burst sprinters and will favour the riders who can sustain power for longer, like Michael Matthews and perhaps Marcel Kittel. Follow all the action with our live blog below:
A brilliant sprint on a wide road sees the big contenders spread out side by side. Gaviria, Greipel and Sagan are the trio there on the line and the Colombian wins his second stage on his debut Tour! An amazing few days for the 23-year-old.
Into the final kilometre and the breakaway have been snaffled. Mark Cavendish is led into this finish by Dimension Data, with Kristoff there too, and Gaviria...
Team Sky hit the front now, with Luke Rowe and Geraint Thomas attacking, perhaps looking to put some time between themselves and those who were affected by the crash. There doesn't seem to be any major GC names hurt by that incident. The breakaway are moments from being caught, right at the last!
A crash! This could be really influential, as half the peloton are involved and could lose significant time. It looks like Tony Gallopin is badly injured, and he lies on the road receiving treatment.
Quick-Step Floors are now controlling the pace on the front of this peloton, with Niki Terpstra and Philippe Gilbert leading the way. This a delicate balancing act for the Belgian team. They have huge strength in depth, but don't to burn out Terpstra and Gilbert – two Tour of Flanders winners – and weaken their lead-out train when they get to finish and attempt to pull Fernando Gaviria into position for the sprint. Will anyone else help them shut this breakaway down? The leading quartet remain around 1 min and 50 sec clear of the pack.
The peloton still need to achieve their first task of dragging back the break and at present, the front four are still more than two minutes clear. Still plenty of time for that to be eroded, of course.
Thomas de Gendt hits the front and floors it in an effort to give his sprinter, Andre Greipel, every opportunity at the end of this race, which I sense is going to be explosive. A reminder that this stage ends with a long, straight 4km drag which culminates in a slight incline for the final 2km. There are lots of riders in this pack who will fancy their chances here – Fernando Gaviria is perhaps the favourite, but Marcel Kittel, Michael Matthews, Peter Sagan and many more will be trying to win it.
Ag2r's Tony Gallopin has just been whacked by his team car, more specifically the door which swung open as one of his mechanics jumped out to hand him a new rear tyre. He wasn't seriously injured, but looked rather miffed.
A minor one, thankfully, but at least there's something of note for me to report. Jacob Fuglsang (Astana) is one of those involved, and he's among about 20 riders who seem to have been held up. One or two riders went into the shallow grass ditch off the side of the road but there doesn't seem to have been any major injuries. The peloton will slow down, out of the goodness of their hearts, to allow those affected to rejoin the pack.
It's fair to say this has not been a thriller. Still four riders – Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Wanty), Dimitri Claeys and Anthony Perez (Cofidis) and Jerome Cousin (Direct Energie) – out in front around a minute and a half ahead of the main bunch.
This tweet is a little bit old now, about 30 mins, but gives a really interesting insight into how the workload has been split across the various teams to reel in the breakaway.
The gap is reduced now to within 1 min 30 sec for the first time since the very beginning of this stage. The sprint teams are jostling for position here, with Dimension Data shuffling closer to the front – after a frustrating first couple of days they are determined to give Mark Cavendish the chance to compete on this long straight finish.
That gap to the leaders has been reduced right down to around two minutes, and for this quartet of Belgian and French riders – do they have somewhere to be? – it seems like their hopes of sustaining this break until the end are dwindling.
There are all sort of riders who could win this type of stage, but the uphill drag to the finish makes us think Michael Matthews can pull off something special.
Odds
Fernando Gaviria 7/4
Dylan Groenewegen 4/1
Marcel Kittel 4/1
Peter Sagan 11/2
Arnaud Demare 15/2
How to watch on TV
Stage four will be shown live on ITV4 from 12pm, and on Eurosport from 11.45am.
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