Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) continued his domination of the Tour de France sprints when he won his third stage in just four days of racing in a very close battle with Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Arnaud Demare (FDJ) in Lille. Having been led out by Alexander Porsev, Kristoff went from afar and got a big gap and the big German had to dig really deep to reel in his Norwegian rival on a day when Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) defended his lead and Chris Froome went down in a crash.

 

Yesterday Marcel Kittel took a hugely dominant win in the third stage of the Tour de France and going into today’s fourth stage, his rivals were all wondering how to beat the impressive German. They failed to do so as Kittel took his second win in a row but today’s sprint definitely proved that he is not unbeatable.

 

Going into the final sprint, Kittel and his final lead-out man Koen De Kort had lost contact with their teammates John Degenkolb and Roy Curvers who were going full gas on the front as they passed the flamme rouge. As the pair realized that they didn’t have their sprinter on their wheel, they stopped their effort and for a moment, the peloton slowed down.

 

Katusha seized the opportunity and moved to the front with Alexander Porsev who gave Kristoff the perfect lead-out. Behind the Norwegian, Mark Renshaw (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Kittel, Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Danny Van Poppel (Trek) were ready to strike but the former opened a gap when Kristoff launched a long sprint.

 

The Katusha sprinter immediately got a big gap which forced Kittel into action much earlier than planned. The German kicked from afar and for a moment it seemed that he was running out of metres. However, he just made it in time and passed a hugely frustrated Kristoff just before the line. Arnaud Demare did a very impressive sprint from very far back and was riding next to Kittel into third as he crossed the line.

 

The stage started off in dramatic way as Chris Froome (Sky) went down almost right after the official start. The defending champion apparently hurt his wrist and his shorts were completely ripped up. After receiving medical treatment, he managed to rejoin the peloton and finished the race in the peloton but dropped from 5th to 7th in the overall standings after finishing a little further back in the group.

 

The second dramatic highlight came just after the intermediate sprint when Cannondale tried to split things in the crosswinds. While most of the sprinters and GC riders stayed attentive, Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) had missed out and almost his entire team had to drop back to help him rejoin the group. The Belgian team was luckily that the peloton slowed down which allowed the Pole not to lose any time to his main rivals for the GC.

 

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) was always in a good position near the front and finished safely in the bunch to defend his 2-second lead over Peter Sagan (Cannondale). The Italian takes that advantage into tomorrow’s highly anticipated 5th stage which brings the riders over 9 cobbled sectors known from the Paris-Roubaix. Otherwise the stage is completely flat but a huge drama and time differences is expected in a stage that most GC riders fear more than a big mountain stage.

 

Back in France

After three days in England, the Tour de France was back on French soil for the fourth stage that brought the riders over 163.5km from Le Touquet-ParisPlage to Lille. The stage was mostly flat but included two small category 4 climbs along the way. Furthermore, the day’s intermediate sprint was located on the Casselberg, making for an unusual battle for the points, but a big bunch sprint was expected.

 

Unfortunately, one of the big names was unable to take the start as Andy Schleck (Trek) had failed to recover from the knee injury he suffered in yesterday’s crash. The remaining 195 riders took the start under beautiful sunny conditions and the attacking started right from the gun.

 

The break takes off

Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) launched the first attack and was joined by Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and a Bretagne rider but Lotto Belisol shut it down immediately. Voeckler and Mate went again and this time they got a gap.

 

Jerome Pineau (IAM) briefly tried to bridge the gap and when he was brought back, more riders tried to make the junction. Later a Bretagne rider gave it a go but when he also failed, the peloton slowed down.

 

Froome goes down

Just as the peloton seemed to be content with the situation, an Orica-GreenEDGE rider made a swerve that brought down Froome and Bauke Mollema (Belkin). While the latter seemed to be unhurt, the former was clearly affected

 

As Astana continued to set a hard pace with Michele Scarponi, it took some time for the defending champion to rejoin the group with the assistance from teammates Bernhard Eisel and David Lopez. When he made the junction, he received medical treatment before he moved back to his position near the front.

 

Giant and Lotto start the chase

Astana had now slowed down, with Scarponi and Alessandro Vanotti setting a steady pace that allowed the leading pair to build an advantage that reached 3.35 after 40km of racing. At the 25km mark, they had got some assistance from Lars Bak (Lotto Belisol) and later also Cheng Ji (Giant-Shimano) and soon after, the Astana pair stopped working.

 

Mate was allowed to take the only point on the first climb while Bak and Ji kept the gap stable at around 3.30 for most of the first half of the stage. However, the peloton was a lot more nervous than yesterday and the front end of the peloton was a lot more crowded.

 

The gap comes down

With 110km to go, Bak was replaced by Bart De Clercq and this had an impact on the gap which staretd to come down. As they entered the feed zone at the halfway point, the advantage was only 1.50.

 

The peloton now stopped their chase work which allowed the gap to remain stable until they reached the intermediate sprint 71km from the finish. On the lower slopes of the Casselberg, Mate had a mechanical but Voeckler waited for him before crossing the line in first position.

 

Sagan scores points

Behind, Marco Marcato (Cannondale) set a hard pace on the climb which only Sagan and Bryan Coquard (Europcar) could match. When the Slovakian launched his sprint, Coquard fell off and so Sagan took third ahead of Marcato and Coquard.

 

Tony Martin (OPQS) led the peloton down the cobbled descent but as soon as they hit the bottom, Marcato accelerated in the crosswinds. BMC joined the action with Marcus Burghardt and Michael Schär and they got assistance from Alessandro De Marchi, Maciej Bodnar and Fabio Sabatini (Cannondale).

 

Kwiatkowski is dropped in the crosswind

The gap to the leader was now melting away and had come down to 30 seconds while a big group with Kwiatkowski, Rein Taaramae, Joaquim Rodriguez, Simon Spilak and Mikel Nieve had been tailed off. For a long time Matteo Trentin tried to bring them back but as he continued to lose time, almost the entire OPQS team dropped back to help their leader.

 

The nervousness in the peloton was palpable and Cannondale repeatedly tried to accelerate but finally they gave up. Astana took over the pace-setting with Vanotti and this allowed the second group to make the junction 50km from the finish.

 

The peloton slows down

At this point, Mate had made a mistake in a corner which had caused him to drop off and he quickly fell back to the peloton. As Astana set a modest pace with Lieuwe Westra and Vanotti, he extended his gap to 1.35.

 

With 39km to go, Lotto Belisol started to chase with Bak and he brought the gap down to a minute. With 30km to go, he was joined by Ji and later also De Clercq and Dries Devenyns (Giant) started to work.

 

Henderson crashes

The gap was now only 20 minutes when De Clercq slid out in a roundabout and brought down both Bak and their teammate Greg Henderson who was forced to abandon the race. Giant continued to chase with Devenyns and later also added Tom Dumoulin and Albert Timmer to the team of workers.

 

With 16km to go, Voeckler was brought back as Tinkoff-Saxo and Garmin-Sharp had now hit the front to keep their captains safe. With Matteo Tosatto, Daniele Bennati, Ramunas Navardauskas, Jack Bauer, Sebastian Langeveld, Alex Howes and Ben King doing a lot of work, they stayed there until the 8km to go mark when Garmin took complete control with Johan Vansummeren and Langeveld.

 

Sagan goes down

At this point, Sagan had hit the deck and the Slovakian was working hard to get back to the front end of the peloton. 5km from the finish, OPQS launched their train, with Michal Golas, Jan Bakelants, Aleesandro Petacchi and Tony Martin taking the first turns on the front.

 

With 2km to go, Giant moved up and they won the battle against Martin. As they passed the flamme rouge, Roy Curvers and Degenkolb were on the front but when they realized that they had no contact with Kittel, they stopped their work which caused some confusion.

 

This was when Porsev made his move and it nearly allowed Kristoff to take the win but Kittel again proved that he is the fastest rider in the race.