Roche and Martin stay out of trouble
Roche and Martin managed to stay upright after a collision in the finale saw several riders hit the deck. Though they were held up behind, UCI rules dictate that because they were inside the final three kilometres of the race, they were attributed the same time as stage winner Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol).
Roche rolled over the line in 55th position and subsequently dropped one place to 21st on general classification, while Martin was slightly further back in 72nd, 87th overall.
Both riders will be glad to see the back of this week and get to the Alps next Tuesday in as good a shape as possible.
Martin’s team, Garmin-Sharp, have had a disastrous start. Firstly, Martin himself lost five minutes after being caught behind a crash on Tuesday, while deputy team leader Tom Danielson was one of those badly affected as he suffered a separated shoulder.
He will continue the race but the severity of his injury is sure to hamper his chances of matching his top-10 finish from last year.
The first week of the Tour is often punctuated by crashes and this year is no different and the nervous tension usually sees some big names crash out — like Bradley Wiggins last year.
But the Sky team leader is still well in contention this time round, and sits in second place behind yellow jersey wearer Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan) by a mere seven seconds, with Sylvain Chavanel (Omega-Pharma QuickStep) in third on the same time.
Cancellara was delayed by the collision and rolled over the line in 119th place towards the rear of the bunch while Wiggins came in further back in 154th. The day, however, belonged to Lotto-Belisol’s German powerhouse Greipel, who claimed his second Tour stage following a maiden win in 2011.
Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) was second, with Tom Veelers (Argos-Shimano) third.
Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) finished fifth on the stage to extend his lead over Cavendish in the race for the points classification’s green jersey.
Cavendish, who won the maillot vert in 2011, had moved from third to second place by leading the peloton over the intermediate sprint behind the day’s three-man breakaway.
But the Manxman now lies fourth on 86 points, with Sagan (147 points) ahead of Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) and Greipel, who have 92 and 87, respectively.
Greipel was thrilled with his display.
“We managed to avoid the crash because we were already in the front to prepare the leadout and the guys did a perfect job to keep me up there and away from the dangerous areas,” he said.
“It worked out perfectly.”
Today’s stage is another pan flat journey and is one the sprinters will fancy. In total, the riders will cover 196 kilometres from Rouen to St-Quentin with just one intermediate sprint.
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