Tour de France Stage 4: Arnaud Demare wins, Mark Cavendish crashes hard

Arnaud Demare of FDJ has won Stage 4 of the Tour de France in Vittel this afternoon, but there is concern that Mark Cavendish's race could be over after he tried to follow the French national champion's wheel and crashed hard after being  into the barriers as he tried to come through on the inside of Bora-Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan with around 200 metres to go. Sagan has since been disqualified from the race.

Cavendish's head hit the ground hard, but after the stage he was back on his feet at his Dimension Data team bus - with Sagan there too, making an apology, although he was later eliminated from the race.

His team manager, Roger Hammond, confirmed after the stage that Cavendish would be going to hospital to be checked over before any decision can be made about whether he can continue in the race, with most concern apparently relating to his potential injuries sustained when his right shoulder hit the barrier.

Team Sky's Geraint Thomas, the race leader, had come down in an earlier crash just before the 1-kilometre to go mark, but remounted to cross the line, and race regulations mean that because his crash happened inside the final 3 kilometres, he won't lose any time and retains the overall lead.

Today’s 203.5-kilometre stage, which began in the Luxembourg town of Montford-les-Bains, home to Andy and Frank Schleck, had been uneventful until that frantic finale.

The main point of interest earlier on had been Belgian UCI Continental outfit Wanty-Groupe Gobert, making its debut in the race – as are all nine of its riders – once again giving their sponsors value for money, with riders out in front on all three road stages.

Today it was the turn of Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, who attacked the moment the flag dropped and with no-one following his move, the peloton was happy to let him go, the Belgian building a lead of more than 10 minutes at one point.

Eventually, he spent almost 190 kilometres alone at the front of the race, before being brought back by the peloton with 16.7 kilometres remaining.

With just one rider up ahead, that meant there were 17 points up for grabs at the day’s intermediate sprint, and they went to Demare.

Sagan took second place – and with it another 15 points – as his seemingly inexorable march towards equalling Erik Zabel’s record of six green jerseys continued.

His disqualification has put paid to that – and now throws the points competition wide open, which in a Tour de France that has an unusually high number of opportunities for the sprinters is likely to be a battle that will go all the way to Paris.