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Tour de France 2014: stage four – five observations

Giant-Shimano and Marcel Kittel win again but it's back to the drawing board for Andre Greipel

Lotto-Belisol were the form team at the start of the year, as Andre Greipel racked up the sprint victories in emphatic style in Adelaide and Oman.

Lars Bak was one of the men tasked with keeping the break under wraps, which he did to perfection, though Lotto-Belisol’s train was disrupted as three of them fell on a roundabout – Greg Henderson abandoning as a result (pic: Bruno Bade/ASO)

And since the German recovered from his Gent-Wevelgem injury, it appeared they were back on form in perfect time for the Tour too.

Things have not worked out quite to plan so far however, despite a phenomenal amount of work being put in by the Belgian team.

Lars Bak has been almost omnipresent on the front of the bunch, hunting down the break on each sprint stage but when it comes to the bunch kick the team in red, leading out German champion Greipel, have been nowhere to be seen.

Greipel admits the wet weather and technical final kilometre mad made him nervous on The Mall, while the team were dealt a blow on stage four when Bak, Greg Henderson and Bart de Clercq all crashed – Henderson abandoning as a result of his injuries.

Marcel Kittel is going to take some beating anyway in this year’s sprint finishes, and if Lotto-Belisol want to prove themselves as one of the best trains in the business they have a lot of work to do.

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