Cycling: Greipel wins fourth stage

ROUEN: Germany's Andre Greipel roared with raw emotion after landing his first Tour de France victory this year in a finale devoid of British sprint king Mark Cavendish.

RadioShack's Fabian Cancellera held on to the leader's yellow jersey at the end of the 214 km ride from Abbeville to Rouen, where Greipel, known as the 'Gorilla' for his imposing physique, prevailed in a small bunch finish.

The closing stages were marked by a multi-bike pile-up less than three kilometres from the line with Cavendish among the casualties.

It left a reduced group of fast men racing for the line, with Greipel coming off the wheel of New Zealand teammate Greg Henderson in the final 200 metres to claim the second Tour victory of his career.

Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) was second with Dutchman Tom Veelers (Argos-Shimano) third.

"It was a really emotional victory for me, we worked hard for this and I think we deserved this," said Greipel.

"I didn't see the crash... it's not nice to see those pictures, but it's a part of racing and there was still a lot of quality guys there, so it's no problem for me.

"I've just won a stage in the Tour de France, so it couldn't be better."

As expected a day after the rigours of the first crash-hit stage on Tuesday left skin on the road and led to three abandons, the early breakaway which formed almost immediately was allowed to race on unhindered.

Japanese Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) and French pair David Moncoutie (Cofidis) and Anthon Delaplace (Suar-Sojasun) were no threat to the bunch and soon built a maximum lead of nearly nine minutes.

With a pancake flat finish, however, they were at the mercy of the sprinters' teams.

They began to put riders at the front of the bunch to prepare the chase, which began in earnest 30 km after Cavendish had beaten his sprint rivals for the green jersey points at the intermediate sprint at 140 km.

Twenty kilometres further on, the day's first crash took down Australian Jonathan Cantwell (Saxo Bank) and Frenchman Mickael Cherel (AG2R), but they were soon back on their bikes chasing.

It took an extra effort, however, for yellow jersey contender Vincenzo Nibali to rejoin the peloton after he suffered a flat tyre and had to wait for a new bike before being paced back to the bunch by two Liquigas teammates.

From then on, the chase was well and truly on and they were eventually reeled in with 10 km to race, shortly after which came the second major crash of the 99th Tour.

Cavendish got back on his bike to finish, but will live to fight another day according to Sky principal Dave Brailsford.

"I can't repeat what he said when he came into the bus," Brailsford told French television. "Mark's lost a bit of skin but it's not bad. He's in a little pain but he's okay."

Cavendish appeared upbeat after posting on his Twitter site: "Ouch... crash at 2.5 km to finish today. Taken some scuffs to my left side, but I've bounced pretty well again. Congrats to @Andre Greipel."

Slovakian Peter Sagan, the winner of stages one and three, also avoided the crash to get in the mix and did well to finish fourth, ahead of Australia's Matt Goss.

"After a crash, I had to change my bicycle. I broke my chain," said the Liquigas rider.

"I'm very happy when I win. Today it was a finish for strong riders and I have very good legs."

After the crash, Greipel's Lotto team took over and he was quick to pay tribute to the teammates who wound up the pace.

"With 1.3 km to go (Marcel) Sieberg hit the front did a really long and fast pull, then (Jurgen) Roelandst started at 800 metres to 450," added Greipel.

"(Greg) Henderson was almost at top speed and then I hit the front with 200 to go. It was a bit long but it did the job.

"If we stick to our plan we are pretty strong, and that's how it went today." (Reuters)