Demare Wins Stage Four in Vittel

Arnaud Démare stormed to victory in stage 4 of the 104th Tour de France as he fended off Peter Sagan and Alexander Kristoff in a bunch gallop in Vittel. Two crashes in the last kilometer prevented some sprinters from contesting the victory. Geraint Thomas retained the yellow jersey for the fourth consecutive day ahead of the first summit finish at La Planche des belles filles.

195 riders took the start of stage 4 in Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxemburg. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) attacked from the gun and there was no reaction from the peloton. He got a 13.15 advantage at km 59 before Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Julien Vermote (Quick-Step Floors) started setting the pace of the peloton after leaving the Team Sky of race leader Geraint Thomas regulating a slow tempo for the first hour of racing.

French teams FDJ with Arthur Vichot and Cofidis with Nicolas Edet, racing for their respective sprinter Arnaud Démare and Nacer Bouhanni, helped the two Belgian squads from half way into the stage. The gap was down to six minutes with 90km to go. At the intermediate sprint of Goviller with 50km to go, the deficit of the peloton was 2.40 and the fastest man was Démare who outsprinted Peter Sagan, André Greipel and Marcel Kittel. Van Keirsbulck's advantage was down to two minutes when he scored the only King of the Mountains up for grabs at the col des Trois-Fontaines 37km away from the finish in Vittel. Nathan Brown (Cannondale-Drapac) remained in the polka dot jersey, becoming the first American to do so since Greg LeMond (in 1986), Tejay van Garderen (in 2011) and Taylor Phinney (yesterday) lost it after one day.

Van Keirsbulck was reined with 16.5km to go after 191 kilometers of a solo breakaway. He received the price of the most aggressive rider of the day. A crash with one kilometer to go stopped Marcel Kittel. Démare made the right move to overtake Alexander Kristoff while Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish clashed and the Brit went down heavily. Démare is the first Frenchman to win a bunch sprint of the Tour de France since Jimmy Casper in Strasbourg in 2006. The last French stage winner wearing the blue-white-red jersey of French champion was Thomas Voeckler in Bagnères-de-Luchon in 2010 Luchon. 

Démare also took the green jersey, which no Frenchman did since Sylvain Chavanel, also in 2010. Geraint Thomas came home safely to retain the yellow jersey.

Albasini Edges Volta a Catalunya

Michael Albasini (GreenEDGE) wrapped up overall victory at the Volta a Catalunya as Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun) took the win on the final stage.

Frenchman Simon claimed his second stage win of the race in much the same fashion as his first - proving the fastest in a reduced field sprint after an undulating 119.8km test from Badalona to Barcelona.

Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) was second ahead of Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) and Team Sky's Rigoberto Urán, with Albasini rolling in safely in the lead group to maintain his 1 minute 30 second advantage ahead of Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) in the overall standings.

Several probing attacks were made on the final three climbs of the day, but the terrain ultimately was not selective enough and the peloton regrouped before the finish.

Earlier a large breakaway formed but the main group did not allow them to stretch out much of an advantage on such a short stage.

Attacks

With two climbs still to go, Tom Danielson leapt out of the peloton and bridged across to the front of the race, which by then contained only Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana) as the lone survivor of the breakaway group.

On the penultimate climb - the second category Alt de Tibidabo - Danielson dropped his Kazakh companion while the chasing group splintered behind him as they attempted to control the gap.

Danielson was eventually reeled back in, with Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) launching a counter-attack on the descent and quickly gaining a comfortable advantage of over a minute.

However, the gap then came down almost as quickly as it went up and the Spaniard was caught well before the finish, paving the way for a few more fruitless attacks on the final climb of the Alt de Vallvidrera.

After a high-speed descent into the finish, Simon struck for home in the closing metres and none of his rivals were able to come around him.

GreenEdge Gerrans Wins Downunder

GreenEdge, the newly-formed Australian professional cycling team, have won their first WorldTour race, the Tour Down Under, after Simon Gerrans held on to the overall lead he took on the penultimate stage while André Greipel, a former two-time winner, took the line honours on the final 90-kilometre stage in Adelaide.

As the first ever Australian team at cycling's top table GreenEdge were hoping to make an immediate impact on their 'home' race.

However, the team run by Shayne Bannan and directed by Matt White made fans wait four days before being given a reason to celebrate, with Gerrans climbing into the leader's ochre jersey on the penultimate stage five.

In Sunday's final stage, a 90km street circuit won by Greipel of Germany, GreenEdge worked hard to defend Gerrans' lead to score a first ever victory in the WorldTour.

For GreenEdge's main stakeholder, businessman Gerry Ryan, it was an unexpected but welcome start to their maiden season.

"It's fantastic, it's been a great journey and this puts the icing on the cake," said Ryan.

With a core of Australian riders, GreenEdge hopes to challenge some of the world's top teams in most of the 28-race WorldTour events.

Among their ranks are veteran Tour de France stage winners Stuart O'Grady and Robbie McEwen.

However they also look to have a bright future with the likes of Jack Bobridge, Cameron Meyer and Luke Durbridge - who are all part of Australia's four-man track cycling pursuit team that will bid for gold at the Olympics.

Durbridge, the under-23 world champion who recently won the national time-trial title, was especially happy as he approaches his first season in the WorldTour.

"I can't be happier. I am a passionate Australian and to see the first WorldTour team for Australia win, you can't get much better than that," he said.

McEwen, who is set to retire before the summer, admitted his final race in Australia had special significance.

"I joined the team and was really excited about being part of the GreenEdge project, racing in an Aussie team, our national team," said McEwen, a 12-time stage winner on the Tour de France."

"It's a fantastic way to go out as far as Australian racing is concerned."

During his spell as sports director with Garmin-Cervelo last year White steered Meyer to a narrow victory over Matt Goss on the final stage.

Now at GreenEdge, and in charge of both riders, White was delighted to steer another Australian to the win.

"To win the Tour Down Under with our newly crowned national champion, we couldn't have written a better script. [I'm] elated, just elated," said White.

Gerrans finished with the same time as Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, the Movistar rider who is likely to be one of his biggest challengers in the hilly one-day classics of the spring.

Six years after his maiden win here, when the event was still a second tier race, the Victorian took even more pleasure from securing their first win.

"It's an even sweeter victory than my first one here in 2006. It couldn't be a better start for us," said Gerrans.

"Often that first victory for a new team is the hardest one to get and we've got it in our first outing, so it really is a dream start and I think this will create a great momentum for the year to come."

Tour Down Under details

Stage six; Adelaide City Council Street Circuit: 90km: 1. André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol - Ger) one hour 56 minutes 48 seconds, 2. Mark Renshaw (Rabobank - Aus) at same time, 3. Alessandro Petacchi(Lampre-ISD - Ita) s..t., 4. Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-BigMat - Blr) s.t., 5 José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar - Spa) s.t., 6. Edvald Boasson Hagen(Team Sky - Nor) s.t., 7. Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM - Fra) s.t., 8. Jonathan Cantwell (Saxo Bank - Aus) s.t., 9. Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas-Cannondale - Ita) s.t., 10. Manuel Belletti (Ag2r-La Mondiale - Ita) s.t.

Selected others: 20. Andrew Fenn (Omega Pharma-Quick Step - GB) s.t. 49. Adam Blythe (BMC Racing - GB) s.t., 66. Geraint Thomas(Team Sky - GB) 17secs, 81. Alex Dowsett (Team Sky - GB) 30secs,98. Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-Quick Step - Irl) 41secs.

Final general classification: 1. Simon Gerrans (GreenEdge - Aus) 20hrs 46mins 12secs, 2. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar - Spa) s.t., 3. Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Nissan - Por) 8secs, 4. Michael Rogers(Team Sky - Aus) 14secs, 5. Rohan Dennis (UNI SA-Australia - Aus) s.t., 6. Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Nissan - Bel) 16secs, 7. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky - Nor) 18secs, 8. Javier Moreno (Movistar - Spa) 23secs, 9. Michael Matthews (Rabobank - Aus) 29secs, 10. Eduard Vorganov (Katusha - Rus) 32secs.

Selected others: 46. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky - GB) 20hrs 54mins 42secs, 75. Andrew Fenn (Omega Pharma-Quick Step - GB) 24mins 32secs, 95. Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-Quick Step - Irl) 28mins 39secs, 121. Adam Blythe (BMC Racing - GB) 43mins 33secs, 124. Alex Dowsett (Team Sky - GB) 46mins 53secs.

Final sprints classification: 1. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky - Nor) 56 points, 2. André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol - Ger) 50pts, 3. Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-BigMat - Blr) 39pts, 4. Mark Renshaw (Rabobank - Aus) 33pts, 5. Michael Matthews (Rabobank - Aus) 32pts, 6. Daniele Bennati (RadioShack-Nissan - Ita) 32pts, 7. Alejandro Valverde(Movistar - Spa) 27pts, 8. Simon Gerrans (GreenEdge - Aus) 27pts, 9. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD - Ita) 27pts, 10. Óscar Freire(Katusha - Spa) 25pts.

Selected other: 39: Andrew Fenn (Omega Pharma-Quick Step - GB) 5pts.

Final King of the Mountains classification: 1. Rohan Dennis (UNI SA-Australia - Aus) 29pts, 2. Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM - Bel) 24pts, 3. Simon Gerrans (GreenEdge - Aus) 24pts, 4. Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Nissan - Por) 18pts, 5. Alejandro Valverde(Movistar - Spa) 16pts, 6. Nathan Haas (Garmin-Barracuda - Aus) 16pts, 7. Javier Moreno (Movistar - Spa) 12pts, 8. Jay Mccarthy (UNI SA-Australia - Aus) 10pts, 9. Will Clarke (UNI SA-Australia - Aus) 10pts,10. Martin Kohler (BMC Racing - Swi) 8pts.

Se4lected other: 15. Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-Quick Step - Irl) 6pts.

Final young rider classification: 1. Rohan Dennis (UNI SA-Australia - Aus) 20hrs 46mins 26secs, 2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky - Nor) 4secs, 3. Michael Matthews (Rabobank - Aus) 15secs, 4. Ángel Madrazo (Movistar - Spa) 1min 1sec, 5. Wilco Kelderman (Rabobank - Hol) 2mins 19secs, 6. Romain Lemarchand (Ag2r-La Mondiale - Fra) 3mins 19secs, 7. Julien Vermote (Omega Pharma-Quick Step - Bel) 3mins 27secs, 8. Gorka Izagirre Inausti (Euskaltel-Euskadi - Spa) 4mins 34secs, 9. Cameron Meyer (GreenEdge - Aus) 8mins 47secs,10. Jay Mccarthy (UNI SA-Australia - Aus) 11mins 11secs.

Selected others: 17: Andrew Fenn (Omega Pharma-Quick Step - GB) 24mins 18secs, 27. Adam Blythe (BMC Racing - GB) 43mins 19secs,29. Alex Dowsett (Team Sky - GB) 46mins 39secs.

Final team's classification: 1. RadioShack-Nissan 62hrs 19mins 53secs, 2. Team Sky 24secs, 3. Movistar 31secs, 4. Rabobank 4mins 40secs, 5. Omega Pharma-Quick Step 4mins 45secs, 6. Katusha5mins 33secs, 7. BMC Racing 5mins 52secs, 8. Garmin-Barracuda6mins 22secs, 9. UNI SA-Australia 11mins 59secs, 10. FDJ-BigMat16mins 15secs.