For Alberto Contador, today's fourth stage of the Tour de France was mostly about staying safe but the Spaniard went into the race with a secret plan. By mixing it up in the bunch sprint, he moved from 5th to 7th in the overall standings which secured the Tinkoff-Saxo team a better car position for tomorrow's stage on the Paris-Roubaix cobbles.

Alberto Contador have many qualities as a bike rider but he is definitely no sprinter. Nonetheless, he mixed it up with the fast guys in today's fourth stage of the Tour de France.

Contador finished 18th on the stage which allowed him to move from 7th to 5th in the overall standings where several riders are equal on time. This allowed the Tinkoff-Saxo team car to gain two positions in tomorrow's stage on the Paris-Roubaix cobbles.

"The truth is that I have tried to finish as high as possible because the position of the car tomorrow is very important," he said. "But I had to take some risks to get that placing.

"It was again a day marked by nerves and danger at every moment plus the threat of wind which forced us to be well positioned. I think I was always in the top 20 throughout the entire stage, thanks to the extraordinary work of my team. We haven’t had crashes or other mishaps, but we had to be a lot in front and ‘eat’ a lot of wind to be in the top positions. I have gained two positions that are really important for the car position tomorrow..

"I cross my fingers because it will be a really difficult day. The weather forecast is very bad. Without rain it would already be a complicated stage but with rain will be a skating rink. We will have to try to negotiate the sections of cobbles in the best possible way, and we will have winds of about 30 km/h which could split the peloton even before the cobbles. Tomorrow will be a tough day and I hope that if we have a crash, it will not be a big one.

“Right now I'm really happy with my feelings, with the team work, with the concentration in the race. For now, we're going as good as possible. To have finished four stages without mishaps is a succes but it is also thanks to the great work of my team. Of course, tomorrow is a day to cross fingers and hope that everything goes well.

"I don't know anything about Froome's crash. I have not seen it. The whole team has been focused from the beginning till the end. Again the work was extraordinary. It is important to be well placed, but if you are unlucky you can not do anything."