After a disappointing start to the race, Arnaud Demare proved that he has the speed to win a stage in the Tour de France when he took third in today's fourth stage. Having been faster than Marcel Kittel in the sprint, the French champion is convinced that the German is beatable.

The first part of his debut Tour de France definitely didn't pan out as expected for Arnaud Demare who suffered in the first two sprints. Today, however, he proved that he has the speed to challenge Marcel Kittel when he finished third in stage 4.

In fact, Demare did the fastest sprint of all the riders. Going into the final turn, the French champion was far back but he made an impressive sprint from far back and just ran out of metres to pass Kittel and Alexander Kristoff.

Despite being disappointed with the near-miss, Demare was pleased to have shown that he can potentially beat Kittel later in the race.

"I am very pleased with this 3rd place even though I didn't take the win," he said. "I learn from my mistakes. I have not yet had the ideal position 300 meters from the finish line. The day I have, I can do some damage. The Tour is hard and the victory is the ultimate satisfaction but tonight I can be satisfied with third place.

"Kittel is beatable. I think there is a way to do something. You must be in the right place at the right time. Today was much better for me but still not the perfect position. You have to be on his wheel 300m from the finish. Today, he was perhaps less fresh. I started 50 meters behind him and I finished less than a wheel back. It was ahead but he did a shorter sprint."

"Arnaud starts to find his rhythm," sports director Yvon Madiot said. "He discovers the Tour but is doing better and better. Now we know he has the legs to get a great result."

Earlier tin the stage the peloton had split in the crosswinds. Demare and Mickael Delage were briefly caught out but soon rejoined the main group. The situation was more critical for Arnold Jeannesson as he found himself in the Kwiatkowski group but there was no reason to worry according to Madiot.

"Arnold is often at the back of the pack but we haved asked him to save energy in these stages to be there for Thibaut Pinot in the mountains. Every day Sky do the same with 3 or 4 riders."