Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) has just won stage 4 of the Tour de France in Rouen.(Image credit: AFP)
Lead-out man Greg Henderson knows teammate Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) will win in Rouen.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Mark Cavendish would have been a favourite to win in Rouen, but instead he rolled across the finish line several minutes in arrears of Greipel nursing wounds from a late crash.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Bernhard Eisel (Sky) is given medical attention following the crash which disrupted the stage 4 finish.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) went down in the crash late in stage 4 and was denied the opportunity to win again on Independence Day.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) scored his first Tour de France victory of 2012, the second of his career when he took out stage 4 on Wednesday in Rouen. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) sprinted to second while Tom Veelers (Argos-Shimano) was third.
The Lotto Belisol train worked to perfection for Greipel who took advantage of the fact that rival Mark Cavendish (Sky) had been brought down by a crash just inside the 3km to go mark. Points classification leader Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) was lucky to avoid the crash, but the pan flat finale was allowed Orica-GreenEdge's Matt Goss to make up considerable ground on the Slovak, finishing fourth across the finish line and moving into second in the battle for the green jersey.
Overall leader Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) also avoided the crash, maintaining his seven second advantage on Sky's Bradley Wiggins.
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