The Tour De France 2014 race event is live on NBC from the NBC Sports Live Extra starting at 8 am ET as the event finally hits French land after starting in Britain and goes from Le Touquet-Paris-Plage to Lille over 163.5km for Stage 4 and comes after Germany's Marcel Kittel won for the second straight stage leading into Tuesday's course run.
London was the destination for the riders on their way down from Cambridge and the route was not very hilly compared to what they will face later in the event and Kittel came through to win the second stage in a row after taking Stage 2 on Sunday. The race route when by all the main attractions like Big Ben and Westminster church and now heads to France and comes after Kittel and everyone else was hit with wet weather coming in and after the stage, Italy's Vincenzo Nibali is tops with the yellow jersey with a two second lead. The race ends in Paris on July 27 and goes for over 2,000 miles and the duration of the event will be broadcast on NBC and NBCSN.
Kittel praised his teammates after the run and he came in ahead of Peter Sagan of Slovakia, who ended up in second and Australia's Mark Renshaw, who finished up in third on the stage. Kittel had four Tour stage wins last year and took the Champs-Elysees in Paris last year and now has this one added to it. Kittel acknowledged that Britain's Mark Cavendish being out of things after suffering an injury on a crash in Stage 1 on Saturday makes it easier for his team, but he also said the field is very tough this year.
Chris Froome of Britain has been talked about as the favorite along with Alberto Contador and those names should be there at the end and now things head to France. The Tour organizers felt the opening in England went very well and praised the riders and the people coming out and waving flags alongside the route, although there were a few crash incidents. The group now heads to France and has the Stage 4 route after crossing the English Channel and will head to Lille Metropole from Le Touquet-Paris Plage and end up right near Belgium.
