Today's fourth stage of the Tour de France included seven sectors with cobblestones. BORA – ARGON 18 leader Dominik Nerz can describe a difficult day as a success. Despite a painful rib injury he suffers from yesterday's mass crash, the 25-year-old reached the finish with a time loss of only 57 seconds thanks to the support of his teammates. With this result, Nerz improved to 27th place overall. Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) secured the stage victory and he also took over the lead in the overall classification.

"The stage was extremely important because we didn’t want to lose too much time here. With the loss of Andreas [Schillinger] this morning a key support was missing. And the rib injury was far from optimal on the cobbles. On the bike you're so focused and full of adrenaline that the pain isn’t that noticeable. But now that the tension falls, it comes back. Now I know what I did today. I am pleased that I was able to make up some places in the GC, despite all the bad luck in advance. My horror stage is now behind me and that gives me extra motivation. Now I can look forward to the mountains”, says Dominik Nerz after the stage.

"After all the setbacks of the last days it was a particularly difficult day," sports director Enrico Poitschke said. " The guys have worked very well for Dominik, so that he could ride the pavé sectors in a good position. He hasn’t lost too much time and even made up some places in the GC. So, this stage has gone according to our plan and we can be satisfied."