Peter Sagan is known for his excellent bike-handling skills but today the Slovakian went down in a crash near the finish. Admitting that it was his own fault, the Slovakian was pleased with his fourth place that allowed him to score important points for the points competition.

Le Touquet-Paris-Plage to Lille, the fourth stage of the Tour de France, was the first on home soil. It was relatively short at 163.5km, easy by the profile, and looking to be the proverbial calm before the storm of tomorrow.

Cannondale Pro Cycling had two rendezvous of the day, and the team needed to be ready for them. The first was the intermediate sprint in Cassel with 71km to go, the second was the finish line in Lille. Each was its own challenge. Cassel is a hilltop sprint while Lille comes at the end of a tricky, narrow finish.

Into Cassel for the field 1:14 behind the break and Marco Marcato took to the front to lead Sagan up the hill to Monte Cassel and the sprint line. The field strung out behind them. Marcato kicked it up a notch around a right-hand bend. Europcar’s Bryan Coquard couldn’t hold Sagan’s wheel anymore and Sagan and Marcato took third and fourth places at the line.

The show was over for at the escapees at 16km to go and the field picked up the pace as dueling trains of teams battled to stay at the front. As the confusion picked up, Sagan fell down, tangling with teammate Ted King who suffered bruises on the right side of the body.

Up quickly, Sagan threaded his way through the peloton as the narrow streets afforded him the opportunity to use his superior bike handling skills on the many corners, a feat made all the more impressive as the roads were wet from an earlier rain.

Into the final kilometers, Sagan latched onto the wheel of Marcel Kittel, the dominant sprinter of the Tour thusfar. Fending off elbows, he followed the big German as Kittel followed his leadout team.

With 500 meters remaining, Katusha sped by everyone and left it up to their sprinter, Alexander Kristoff. An early move, but perhaps the only way to beat Kittel. Kittel waited and then launched with Sagan on his wheel. In the final meters, Kittel nudged his front wheel past Kristoff while Sagan remained glued to his rear. Sagan took fourth for the second time in the Tour. He extends his lead in the points competition and keeps the lead in the best rider competition.

Considering the way the day could have ended, Sagan was satisfied with the result.

"Well, I can say I'm happy for the result, I did a good sprint and I took important points, especially after the crash I had around 15 km," he said. "Honestly, it was my mistake. I took the right side of a roundabout, the road was wet and I slid down. I suffered few bruises on right leg and arm - I hope to don't suffer any problems during the next days"

"Tomorrow it will be a hard and very nervous day. We'll race on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix but I think we'll be a different race compared to the Classic. I expect the GC riders and their teams taking the lead of the race. And this will create a lot of traffic and tension in the peloton for the positions. It will be a though day and we'll need good luck. For the results, of course it could be a stage suited for me, but it will be too unpredictable. We'll see how it goes."