Demare gives France first Tour de France sprint win in 11 years
Arnaud Démare became the first Frenchman in eleven years to win a sprint on stage four of the Tour de France on Tuesday. The finish was blighted by crashes and the withdrawal of both Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan.
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Arnaud Démare gave hosts France a long-awaited sprint win on stage four of the Tour de France on Tuesday, in a finish blighted by crashes.
World number one Peter Sagan was thrown out of the race for causing a crash that broke Mark Cavendish’s shoulder.
It appeared that the world champion caught Cavendish with his elbow as he edged to the right, sending the Dimension Data sprinter flying into the barriers at 60kmh and crashing to the ground.
Sagan said he accepted his disqualification but doesn't agree with it.
"In the sprint I didn't know that Mark Cavendish was behind me," he said on Wednesday.
"Mark was coming really fast from the back and I just didn't have time to react and to go left."
With his arm in a sling, Cavendish said he didn't know what had happened.
"I was a little bit confused with the elbow, that's something I'd like to speak to him about," said the 32-year-old winner of 30 Tour stages.
Geraint Thomas retained his yellow jersey despite a crash of his own.
He fell first in the tight, technical finish to the stage but was soon up and on his way and maintains a 12-second lead over teammate Chris Froome in Wednesday's fifth stage from Vittel to La planche des belle filles.
The day had been desperately dull until the Slovak's clash with Cavendish.
It dominated the post-race press briefings and sadly overshadowed Demare's first Tour stage win, the first Frenchman to carry out such a feat in eleven years.
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