Tour de France - Stage 4 Back to news items

André Greipel has won the fourth stage with fancy. The team performed excellent work again for the German and was this time rewarded for it.
The fourth stage took the riders from Abbeville to Rouen. It was the first one of a triptych that is extremely suited for sprinters. Immediately after putting down the flag Arashiro accelerated. The Japanese got the company of Moncoutié and Delaplace. In the peloton Francis De Greef was again very active in the chase.

The three escapees were caught at less than nine kilometers from the finish. There were attacks from e.g. Gilbert and Chavanel. Thanks to the work of the Lotto Belisol riders among others the peloton was heading for a bunch sprint. At 2,5km from the end there was a crash in the peloton, Mark Cavendish was one of the victims.

The train of André Greipel was again put perfectly on the rails. After Marcel Sieberg and Jürgen Roelandts had played their part Greg Henderson took over at 400 meters from the finish line. Then it was André Greipel's turn and he sprinted his opponents out of his wheel. Before Greipel had crossed the finish line Henderson was already cheering. Afterwards Greipel had a lot of praise for his teammates.

André Greipel: "A victory in the Tour cannot be compared to anything. The victory this year or the one from last year is completely different. We're here with a real group of friends and then it's easier to set good performances, to fight for each other. It's an incredible team performance, a reward for the whole team for the amount of hard work today on the one hand, but also in the stage from the day before yesterday. When you see how long Francis De Greef was pulling on the head of the peloton and all the guys have led me perfectly to the front. The train has worked perfectly, just like Monday."
About the crash Greipel said this. André Greipel: "I heard the crash, but we are riding 60 km an hour, so you don't have the time to look behind. I didn't know exactly what had happened. I hope the guys that crashed aren't hurt badly and can start tomorrow."

Greipel didn't mingle in the intermediate sprint today. André Greipel: "I consciously didn't take part in the intermediate sprint. Sunday I did because it wasn't an arrival suited for a real sprint and I decided to test the legs for a moment. Monday and today I consciously didn't battle for it, Sagan has such a big lead that it isn't simple to race him out of the green jersey. Winning a stage was always the first goal and that was realized today."