page_title: 2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10
section_title: Stage 4
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10 / Stage 4
caption_attribution_description: English: Profil of the 4th stage of the Tour de France 2012
context_page_description: The 2012 Tour de France began on 30 June, and stage 10 occurred on 11 July. The 2012 edition began with a prologue – a short individual time trial stage – where each member of the starting peloton of 198 riders competed against the clock – in Liège, Belgium with two more stages held in the country before moving back into France. The race resumed in Orchies for the start of the third stage; also during the first half of the race, the peloton visited Switzerland for the finish to the eighth stage in Porrentruy, and contested another individual time trial stage – having returned to France – the following day.
  Fabian Cancellara held the lead of the race throughout its opening Belgian leg; having won the race-commencing prologue, Cancellara defended it on the following two stages before the race returned to France. Cancellara maintained his overall lead for the rest of the race's first week, before eventually losing time on the first true mountain stage of the race – stage seven – as he was dropped on the closing climb to La Planche des Belles Filles. As a result, Bradley Wiggins assumed the maillot jaune, becoming the first British rider to wear the jersey since 2000.
context_section_description: 4 July 2012 — Abbeville to Rouen, 214.5 km (133.3 mi)
  The first half of the stage followed the coast of Picardy and Normandy along the English Channel through Dieppe to the intermediate sprint point of Fécamp, before turning inland towards the finish at Rouen, with four fourth-category climbs during the 214.5 km (133.3 mi) parcours. The wind on the coast was expected to have an influence on the race, while the two tight turns to get over the Guillaume le Conquérant Bridge with 1 km (0.6 mi) to go, were potentially disruptive for the lead-outs ahead of an expected sprint finish along the quayside in Rouen.
  A three-rider breakaway was formed in the early kilometres of the stage, with the riders all representing French-licensed Professional Continental teams. Home riders David Moncoutié (Cofidis) and Anthony Delaplace (Saur–Sojasun) were joined by Japan's Yukiya Arashiro representing Team Europcar, as they set about gaining an advantage of over eight-and-a-half minutes from the main field. On the day, Moncoutié and Delaplace would ultimately share the four categorised climbs between them, each scoring two points towards the mountains classification; while Arashiro, the best sprinter among the trio, took maximum points at Fécamp. The now-customary bunch sprint for the minor points was again taken by Team Sky's Mark Cavendish, after launching his sprint off the rear wheel of Orica–GreenEDGE's Matthew Goss. Rabobank's Mark Renshaw just edged out points leader Peter Sagan of Liquigas–Cannondale for sixth place points. A light rain shower hit the race with around 50 km (31.1 mi) remaining, before the first crash of the day with Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank's Jonathan Cantwell and Sagan's teammate Vincenzo Nibali among those delayed, but both would later rejoin the main field.
  The lead gap continued to dwindle as the race wore on, with Delaplace eventually leaving his breakaway companions behind with 10 km (6.2 mi) to go. Six more riders looked to join the leading trio but all riders were eventually brought back 3.5 km (2.2 mi) ahead of the finish. Inside the final 3 km (1.9 mi), another crash took down a number of riders including Cavendish and lead-out man Bernhard Eisel, as well as the Garmin–Sharp duo Robert Hunter and Tyler Farrar. The final sprint was between the sprint trains of Lotto–Belisol, Argos–Shimano and Orica–GreenEDGE; Jürgen Roelandts, Marcel Sieberg and Greg Henderson set the tempo for André Greipel to lead it out from the front, and Greipel achieved a stage victory at the Tour for the second consecutive year, the first such occurrence for a German rider since Erik Zabel. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre–ISD) beat Argos–Shimano's Tom Veelers to the line for second, with Goss and Sagan – the latter despite being delayed by the late-stage crash – rounding out the top five.
caption: Stage four profile
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