Cofidis' French cyclist Nacer Bouhanni celebrates as he crosses the finish line winning the fourth stage of the 97th Volta Catalunya
Kristoff and Demare were on the front after the crash(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Nacer Bouhanni with strapping on his neck(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
Arnaud Démare wins stage 4 of the Tour de France.
As Demare heads to the line, Degenkolb and Swift go down (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Cofidis' French cyclist Nacer Bouhanni celebrates as he crosses the finish line winning the fourth stage of the 97th Volta Catalunya
Amid the madness that was the aftermath of stage 4 of the Tour de France, it was easy to lose sight of the stage winner. Arnaud Démare's first Tour de France stage victory – in the French champion's jersey no less – had far less of the spotlight that it would ordinarily command as we pored over the minutiae of Peter Sagan's collision with Mark Cavendish.
Perhaps the incident – and Sagan's subsequent disqualification from the Tour – was a welcome distraction for Démare, who has himself been accused of a dangerous deviation from his own sprinting line, with fellow Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni of Cofidis complaining that he was "cut up" and nearly crashed.
"Démare's move? A manifest illustration of line deviation," wrote former pro and Eurosport commentator Matt Stephens on Twitter, while Chris Boardman described the decision to take action against Sagan and not Démare as "inconsistent".
Replays show that while Sagan and Cavendish's altercation comes about as they tracked Démare to the right-hand side of the road, Démare himself then bursts to the left. Kristoff is out in front at this point, and Démare tries to exploit a gap that opens between the Norwegian's back wheel and Bouhanni.
"It was a nervous sprint. I was in the ideal position in the final kilometres and I knew the finish by heart. But at 150 metres from the line, as I was on the wheel of Alexander Kristoff, Arnaud Démare cut me up and I touched his back wheel," explained Bouhanni.
"At that moment it was over. If I didn't brake, I'd have fallen."
Bouhanni, an old rival of Démare's from their time at FDJ, made no explicit suggestion that Démare should have been relegated.
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Special motivation
There was extra motivation for Bouhanni as the stage finished in his home region, with Vittel a matter of kilometres from his parents' house. In any case, the fact that he was up there competing for the victory against the world's best is promising when you consider that his Tour build-up was compromised for a third year in a row, this time by a head trauma suffered at the Tour de Yorkshire.
"I really wanted to shine on home turf but I have to get rid of that disappointment – there are still plenty of sprints left," Bouhanni added.
Indeed, there are, on paper, seven more opportunities for the fast men, and Cofidis manager Yvon Sanquer happy to exercise patience, an attribute he has honed since signing Bouhanni.
"Evidently, there's huge frustration because Nacer was up there in this stage that he'd bookmarked, and he sprinted in exactly the right way," he said.
"We must now make sure the team knows its limits and how to manage its resources. That's how we're going to be able to guide him and give him the helping hand he needs to get that victory that he deserves. He's at the level where he needs to be. He was eighth in Liege and fourth in Vittel, and on both occasions he wasn't able to finish his sprint. He's in amongst it."
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Patrick is an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish) and a decade’s experience in digital sports media, largely within the world of cycling. He re-joined Cyclingnews as Deputy Editor in February 2026, having previously spent eight years on staff between 2015 and 2023. In between, he was Deputy Editor at GCN and spent 18 months working across the sports portfolio at Future before returning to the cycling press pack. Patrick works across Cyclingnews’ wide-ranging output, assisting the Editor in global content strategy, with a particular focus on shaping CN's news operation.
