André Greipel looked really strong in the finale of today's stage of the Tour de France and had made it safely up the final climb with the best riders. A late crash, however, took him out of contention.

André Greipel has not had a lot of luck in the 2014 Tour de France. After having crashed out of the sprint finish in stage 12, the German was again held up by the crash in the finale of today's stage 19 of the race.

"Navardauskas was strong, but in normal circumstances he would have been in trouble," Lotto Belisol manager Marc Sergeant. "Roelandts was constantly sitting in front of Greipel. Hansen and Gallopin were ready to close the gap."

"But then we had the crash. Greipel was feeling good until that unexpected, dangerous turn. Everyone wanted to sit up front at that time with the known consequences. Greipel was unfortunately behind.

"He was where he had to be and he was excited. It is shame that a full day of chasing can be destroyed completely by a crash.

"In almost every sprint we have had a chance of rain. Now we put everything on Sunday and hopefully we won't have any rain."