Tour de France: Gaviria wins stage 4 in Sarzeau

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Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) claimed his second victory of this year's Tour de France after a close three-way sprint into Sarzeau on stage 4. Green jersey Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) squeezed up the inside to take second, while Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) faded to third after striking out early.

"It was a very difficult victory," Gaviria said after the stage. "We didn't have any help to control the breakaway today so it was really difficult, but we really wanted to win today and the team did an incredible job and we're really happy. I'd like to thank all of my teammates for all of their hard work, and we're now looking forward to the next few days.

"It's hard to say that you believe that you can do it when you come here, but we really trained very hard for this Tour. We've arrived here in very good condition."

Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) joined in the sprint and finished safely to keep hold of the yellow jersey for another day.

The run into Sarzeau was the longest finishing straight of this year's Tour de France, and the sprint trains made the most of it. Dimension Data brought the peloton into the final kilometre as they pulled back the remnants of the breakaway, but they were muscled out in the end. Quick-Step Floors showed why their sprint train is so renowned, with Max Richeze dragging Gaviria through the melee to place him at the front of the pack at just the right time.

Greipel was the first to launch his sprint down the right-hand side of the road, but the German faded in what was a very long sprint affected by a strong headwind. Gaviria took the middle of the road, while Sagan, who had been boxed in briefly, moved across to the barriers to try and slip up the inside of Greipel. Both overtook the German in the closing metres, with Gaviria edging out Sagan on the line.

The head-on shot made it appear a blanket finish between the three, but an overhead image made it clear that Gaviria was the obvious winner. The Colombian is quickly becoming the dominant sprinter in the opening week of the 2018 Tour de France.

The headwind was an issue, Sagan said. "Maybe it would have been better if I was on the wheel of Andre but I still got second and that's better than third and I'm happy to keep the green jersey."

How it happened

After BMC Racing won the stage 3 team time trial, Van Avermaet was keen to start the day in the yellow jersey, perhaps hoping it would be a good omen for the national side ahead of Belgium's clash with France at the FIFA World Cup later in the day.

It was a lengthy neutral zone, with the peloton travelling nine kilometres before the flag was finally dropped for racing to begin. Each of the Pro Continental teams had riders getting up close and personal with the race director's car, eager to make it into another breakaway. It would likely be a publicity effort, with the peloton targeting a third sprint finish of this year's Tour de France.

There wasn't too much of a fight put up before a four-rider breakaway got clear of the bunch. Cofidis had two representatives in Dimitri Claeys and Anthony Perez, while Direct Energie and Wanty-Group Gobert had Jerome Cousin and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, respectively. Fortuneo-Samsic would be the only one of the wildcard teams not to make it into the move.

After the efforts of the team time trial, the peloton was in no hurry to chase them down, and the break would be allowed to build a lead of close to eight minutes before the peloton sprang into action to manage the gap. The quartet moved smoothly for the changes and rolled through the intermediate sprint at the midway point with no contest. It was a different story in the peloton, with the sprinters looking to grab a few points in the green jersey competition Gaviria took 11 points for his tally, followed by Greipel and the classification leader Sagan.

Brief excitement over, the riders settled back into the slog toward Sarzeau, where UCI president David Lappartient is the sitting mayor. Quick-Step Floors did much of the work with a little help from Lotto Soudal and BMC Racing. With 20 kilometres remaining, their once grand advantage had fallen to two minutes. Some 10 kilometres later, a further minute had been shaved off the lead as more and more sprinters' teams moved up to the front of the peloton.

With some serious firepower in the four-rider move, they were not ready to sit up and let the peloton take them. In the tussle for supremacy, the peloton suffered a blow when a rider appeared to crash near the front of the group, causing a massive chain reaction that saw several riders hit the deck hard. Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) were among those that got stuck behind the crash, and a massive chase ensued. Uran made it back in the peloton, but Zakarin would finish almost a minute behind and lose time, having fallen outside the 3km mark.

Despite having their number depleted, the peloton reeled back three of the four attackers just before the flamme rouge. Van Keirsbulck held on for a few hundred metres more before he too was brought back, setting things up for the sprint finish.

The wide road made for another hectic finish, with a number of teams lining up their sprinters on the front of the bunch. In the end, Quick-Step Floors played it to perfection once again, with Gaviria backing up the work put in by his team.

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