Greipel finishes off a wonderful team effort

The progress report
The 214.5km fourth stage of the 99th Tour de France – from Abbeville to Rouen – started at 12.22pm. There were 195 riders at the sign on with Tjallingii (RAB) the non-starter, because of a broken him sustained in a crash in stage three. The race featured four hills, all of them cat-4: they were Mont Huon (at 38km), Dieppe (at 69km), Pourville-sur-Mer (at 74km) and Toussaint (at 143km). The intermediate sprint was in Fécamp at 140km, just before the riders left the coast and aimed inland towards Rouen. The weather was warm with temperatures in the mid to high 20s (Celsius) and there was barely a breeze early in the day.

Three in the escape of stage four
As soon as racing began Yukiya Arashiro (EUC) attacked. He was joined by Moncoutie (COF) and Delaplace (SAU) and the peloton was happy to let them go: by the 8km mark, they had an advantage of 5’00”. The best on GC after three stages was the Japanese rider who began the day ranked 54th overall, 2’03” behind Cancellara. The advantage grew quickly and by 12km the three were ahead by 7’20”. The average speed for the first hour was 37.6km/h. The maximum advantage was 8’40” (around 20km) and then Lotto-Belisol worked with RadioShack to limit the gains of Arashiro’s break. After the second climb, won by Delaplace, Orica-GreenEdge sent Langeveld up to the front to assist with the pace setting. The bunch was behind by 7’00” at the 69km mark.
Moncoutie collected another point at the third hill and put himself into equal-second place in the climbing classification. The average speed for the second hour was 37.7km/h. The escapees were kept in check and their advantage steadily dropped to 5’40” after three hours of racing. The average for the third hour was 37.4km/h.

Arashiro takes 20 points in Fecamp
The instigator of the escape, Arashiro led Delaplace and Moncoutie over the line to take the 20 points for first at the intermediate sprint. When the peloton was 5km from the Fecamp, it was 7’05” behind; at the site of the sprint – when Cavendish (SKY) beat Goss (OGE), Renshaw (RAB) and Sagan (LIQ) for the points for fourth place – the deficit to the escapees was 6’05”. Delaplace led Moncoutie over the line of the fourth climb without any challenge. With 60km to go, the peloton was led by riders from four teams: RadioShack, Orica, Lotto and FDJ and was 4’50” behind the escape. Nibali (LIQ) was caught up in a crash with 45km to go but he quickly remounted and chased down the peloton with the help of three team-mates.

Setting up the sprint
With 20km to go, the peloton was just 1’35” behind Arashiro’s trio; with 15km to to, 50”... and the escape was all over at 8.5km to go. There were a few counter-attacks involving the likes of Dumoulin (COF), Pineau (OPQ) and even Gilbert (BMC) but they never gained any ground. Lotto-Belisol controlled the final few kilometers along with some Orica-GreenEdge riders. Just as the true lead-outs started to form, with 3km to go, there was some jostling for position and 2.6km from the line there was a crash that took out the winner of stage two, Mark Cavendish. It appeared as though it was Hunter (GRS) who touched wheels and landed heavily on the tarmac. It caused a ricochet effect and numerous riders were taken out. All of them will be given the same time as the winner as the incident happened inside the final three kilometers.

Greipel gains his second Tour stage win
Most of the favorites – with the notable exception of Cavendish – were still in the hunt for the stage win and Lotto-Belisol had four riders at the front going into the final turn. Petacchi (LAM) and Veelers (ARG) where on the wheel of Greipel but, neither had the speed to get around the German who claimed his second victory in the Tour after his success in Carmaux last year.
Cancellara finished in 119th but with the same time as the winner. He will wear the yellow jersey in stage five.