Tour De France 2018 Stage 4

Colombia's Fernando Gaviria held off Peter Sagan and Andre Greipel in a thrilling sprint finish to win stage four of the Tour de France in Sarzeau.

The Quick-Step Floors rider, who also won the Tour's first stage, had to kick twice to deny Greipel after the German edged in front close to the line.

Sagan nipped in for second as Greipel faded after the peloton finally caught a four-man breakaway with 1km to go.

BMC Racing's Greg van Avermaet retained the leader's yellow jersey.

The Belgian, who took the overall lead on Monday, avoided a crash that split the peloton with 5km to go.

His team-mate Tejay van Garderen is second in the general classification, with Team Sky's Geraint Thomas three seconds back in third.

Four-time winner Chris Froome finished safely in the bunch to remain 52 seconds further adrift, although he moved up one position to 17th, one place ahead of fellow Briton Adam Yates, after Katusha-Alpecin's Ilnur Zakarin was caught behind the late crash.

"It was another stressful day and another big crash which only adds to the stress," Thomas told BBC Radio 5 live.

"It was nice to get through unscathed. I felt pretty good but we will get more of a sense on Wednesday where we will get the first solid day."

Mark Cavendish was caught out of position in the final stages and unable to contest the sprint.


Stage four result

1. Fernando Gaviria (Col/Quick-Step Floors) 4hrs 25mins 1sec
2. Peter Sagan (Svk/Bora-Hansgrohe) same time
3. Andre Greipel (Ger/Lotto-Soudal)
4. Dylan Groenewegen (Ned/LottoNL-Jumbo)
5. Marcel Kittel (Ger/Katusha-Alpecin)
6. Andrea Pasqualon (Ita/Wanty-Groupe Gobert)
7. Alexander Kristoff (Nor/UAE Team Emirates)
8. John Degenkolb (Ger/Trek-Segafredo)
9. Dion Smith (NZ/Wanty-Groupe Gobert)
10. Timothy Dupont (Bel/Wanty-Groupe Gobert)

General classification after stage four

1. Greg van Avermaet (Bel/BMC Racing) 13hrs 33mins 56secs
2. Tejay van Garderen (US/BMC Racing) same time
3. Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Sky) +3secs
4. Philippe Gilbert (Bel/Quick-Step Floors) +5secs
5. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Quick-Step Floors) +7secs
6. Bob Jungels (Lux/Quick-Step Floors) same time
7. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Sunweb) +11secs
8. Soren Kragh Andersen (Den/Sunweb) same time
9. Michael Matthews (Aus/Sunweb)
10. Rigoberto Uran (Col/EF Education First) +35secs

Selected:

17. Chris Froome (GB/Team Sky) +55secs
18. Adam Yates (GB/Mitchelton-Scott) +1min