It was a chaotic finish to an otherwise incident-free stage, on the long 207.5km run to Vittel. Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) escaped from the flag, only to find nobody followed him as he braced himself for a long day in the saddle.

The easy tempo of the peloton, which Team Sky led for much of the early part of the stage, meant the Belgian’s gap increased significantly – soon heading into double figures before the peloton began eating into that gap.

With a long, largely flat stage before them, the rhythm of the race was set, with only a flurry of action at the intermediate sprint breaking up proceedings.

A lone escapee meant plenty of intermediate sprint points on offer in the bunch, and Demare tested his legs for the final sprint by winning the kick from the peloton.

Van Keirsbulck snaffled the only climbing point on offer, before his long day up the road was finally ended – with the sprint teams having taken over from Team Sky for the expected bunch gallop.

Katusha-Alpecin put a big shift in, while Steve Cummings aired the British champion’s jersey on the front of the bunch and Nacer Bouhanni’s Cofidis team-mates called for tempo on the narrow country roads leading to Vittel.

On the opposite side of the road, Team Sky lined out with yellow jersey Thomas and defending champion Froome in tow but the fight for position meant nobody had full control of the bunch.

Dimension Data took the best line around the first big left-hand turn leading to the technical run-in, and constant twists and turns lined the peloton out behind them.

“They are both sprinters, so they are hard guys but I think the message we send out here is if the world champion can elbow his competitors off the bike at 65km/h… that’s pretty much life threatening so I don’t think we can accept that,” Aldag said, before adding: “It’s time for [the UCI] to step up here and make a decision.”

Ultimately, the race jury’s decision saw Sagan expelled from the race as the Slovak, who won stage three on Monday, went from hero to villain.

Thomas, meanwhile, remounted to finish the stage and keep the yellow jersey, with the Welshman not losing any time as his earlier crash came inside the final 3km.

Tour de France 2017: stage four – result

1) Arnaud Demare (FRA) – FDJ – 4.53.54hrs
2) Alexander Kristoff (NOR) – Katusha-Alpecin
3) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Soudal
4) Nacer Bouhanni (FRA) – Cofidis
5) Adrien Petit (FRA) – Direct Energie
6) Jurgen Roelandts (BEL) – Lotto-Soudal
7) Michael Matthews (AUS) – Team Sunweb
8) Manuele Mori (ITA) – UAE Team Emirates
9) Tiesj Benoot (BEL) – Lotto-Soudal
10) Zdenek Stybar (CZE) – QuickStep Floor

General classification

1) Geraint Thomas (GBR) – Team Sky – 14.54.25hrs
2) Chris Froome (GBR) – Team Sky +12”
3) Michael Matthews (AUS) – Team Sunweb – ST
4) Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) – Dimension Data +16”
5) Pierre Latour (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale +25”
6) Philippe Gilbert (BEL) – QuickStep Floors +30”
7) Michal Kwiatkowski (POL) – Team Sky +32”
8) Tim Wellens (BEL) – Lotto-Soudal – ST
9) Arnaud Demare (FRA) – FDJ +33”
10) Nikias Arndt (GER) – Team Sunweb +34″