Andre Greipel wins the fourth stage of the Tour de France
Andre Greipel of Team Lotto Belisol bagged his first victory of the Tour de France 2012 after his superb performance during stage 4 of the race.
The German rode brilliantly during the 214.5 kilometre stage and restricted the race favourites.
He crossed the finish-line in the quickest time of 5 hours, 18 minutes and 32 seconds and occupied the top podium position.
Alessandro Petacchi of Team Lampre-ISD, Tom Veelers of Team Argos-Shimano, Matthew Harley Goss of Team Orica GreenEdge and Peter Sagan of Team Liquigas-Cannondale occupied the second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
"I'm so happy today. I am so happy to have those guys on my side, such strong riders to lead me out,” Andre briefed after winning the race.
“This is what we wanted to reach today, winning a stage," he briefed after crossing the finish line.
"We had Lars [Bak] up at the front working," Hansen said at the finish. "Towards the end there was a bit of a climb and Lars held his position well".
"Then we had Jelle doing the climb. And behind them there was Sieberg, Roelandts, then Greg did his work and André finished it off. It was perfect".
Andre Greipel also topped the point’s category of the race with a total number of 45 UCI points in his back pocket.
Alessandro Petacchi of Team Lampre-ISD, Tom Veelers of Team Argos-Shimano, Matthew Harley Goss of Team Orica GreenEdge and Peter Sagan of Team Liquigas-Cannondale achieved the next four positions.
David Moncoutie of Team Cofidis wins the first and the third mountain of the race while Anthony Delaplace of Team Saur-Sojasun succeeded during the second and the fourth climb.
Peter Sagan of Team Liquigas-Cannondale, Kris Boeckmans of Team Vacansoleil-DCM, Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky, Patrick Gretsch of Team Argos-Shimano and Gorka Izaguirre Insausti of Team Euskaltel-Euskadi were the top five young riders on the day.
Fabian Cancellara continued his 7 second lead on Bradley Wiggins and retained his first overall position after the stage 4 classifications.
Wiggins is holding the second spot with Sylvain Chavanel of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep, Tejay Van Garderen of Team BMC and Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky Procycling holding the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
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