Stage 4

The road

At the start

The cobbles, and Cancellara gone

Chris Froome leads the Tour by a single second from Tony Martin after the Mur de Huy. Fabian Cancellara does not start, and neither do Tom Dumoulin, William Bonnet or Simon Gerrans — the pile-up that halted the race for twenty minutes yesterday has cost four riders and the yellow jersey with them. Today is the longest stage of this Tour, 222 kilometres to Cambrai, with seven sectors of pavé in the last fifty.

How it was won

1. 146 km to go

   Rain on the pavé

   Just before the sector from Artres to Famars the first drops fall and the wind gets up. With forty-six kilometres left and six sectors to come, the longest stage of the Tour finally bursts into life.

2. 241 km to go

   Astana put the hammer down

   On the sector to Verchain-Maugré the Kazakh team drill it and the peloton goes single file across the cobbles. Froome reacts fast enough to get himself onto Nibali's wheel.

3. 329 km to go

   Saint-Python, and fewer than fifty left

   Nibali hits the front on the cobbles of Saint-Python and the front of the race starts to fracture. Froome isn't on his wheel this time but he is still there, with Quintana and Contador clinging on behind.

4. 412 km to go

   Thomas and Froome go clear

   Fuglsang lights up the last sector, into Carnières, in anticipation of another Nibali dig — and it comes, harder than before. Štybar counters, and then Geraint Thomas takes the front with Froome glued to him and rips a hole in the race. Nibali, Degenkolb, Van Garderen and Valverde make it; Contador and Quintana do not.

5. 58 km to go

   Froome's phantom attack

   The split looks like sticking until Froome, of all people, jumps on the tarmac — then eases, and the groups slide back together with seven and a half kilometres to go.

6. 6At the line

   Tony Martin finally gets his day

   Three days of frustration end with a raking attack in the last kilometres into Cambrai. Nobody can hold the German's wheel, and Tony Martin rides into the first yellow jersey of his career.

The result