FDJ were one of the teams to be worst affected by the high-speed crash that marred the finish of stage 4 of the Tour Down Under. Young sprinter Lorrenzo Manzin was the first to hit the deck and together with his young teammate Olivier Le Gac. He is out of the race.

"Lorrenzo suffers from major wounds on the elbow and knee and is in the hospital where he will remain under observation overnight," said sports director Frédéric Guesdon to the team website. "Nothing is broken but the doctors prefer to take care of him. He will obviously be a non-starter in the fifth stage. Similarly Olivier Le Gac also crashed. He has bruises everywhere. Finally, he is doing well, it could have been worse but the Tour Down Under is not our race. Every year, except from 2014, we have had a rider in the hospital!"

Before the big crash occurred in the slightly downhill home straight where riders reached speeds of nearly 75 kmh, the stage was animated by a breakaway in which was Cédric Pineau took part.

“The cooperation wasn’t good,” said Pineau. “Bobdridge was up there only for the KOM. Then Hepburn stopped contributing because his team-mates wanted to do echelons at the front of the peloton.

“Kennaugh stopped riding too so I just remained alone at the front,” he said. “I continued but with no illusions. It’s frustrating to fight so hard for a breakaway with people who actually don’t want to stay away.”

"Everyone works well," Guesdon added. "Jussi Veikkanen had really bad the day yesterday but today he had good legs. Arnold [Jeannesson] is also good and I do not rule out that the FDJ team can make a good result on Saturday in the Willunga stage."

The stage waswon by Australian Steele Von Hoff, a member of the UniSA selection. Jérémy Roy, sneaking against the right fence, finished in eleventh place but this is anecdotal.