in the hopes of getting their respective sprinters John Degenkolb and Nacer Bouhanni towards the front if a sprint finish materialised. It was those two teams who gradually brought back Maté and Martínez for the majority of the parcours, but as the race drew nearer La Clayette, more teams put men into the relay and the breakaway was ended inside the final . held their riders on the front of the peloton in the closing stages, with Sylvain Chavanel, seventh overall, being protected by his team-mates before setting the pace at times. Degenkolb's chances for the stage ended with around remaining due to a puncture. Philippe Gilbert attacked for with to go, gaining an advantage of a few seconds but was caught with around left. looked to get Tony Gallopin in position for the sprint, while behind, Ricardo Garcia () clipped the barriers, and fell back into the path of the sprint causing the majority of the field to be hampered; all riders that were impacted by the crash were eventually given the same time. Up front, Edvald Boasson Hagen () launched his sprint off the wheel of Gerald Ciolek (), and won the stage by a bike length from Ciolek with 's Borut Božič completing the podium. Due to the crash in the closing metres and the resultant nullification of any time gaps, Boasson Hagen's team-mate Bradley Wiggins maintained his one-second lead in the general classification over Cadel Evans (), despite his earlier reservations of holding the lead into the time trial due to the skinsuit type provided by the race organisation compared to that of his team. Evans also lost the lead of the points classification to Gallopin, who achieved his third consecutive top-ten finish at the line; adding the points jersey to the young rider jersey that he had already achieved, after Boasson Hagen was dropped the previous day. Stage 4 7 June 2012 — Villié-Morgon to Bourg-en-Bresse, , individual time trial (ITT) Unlike the third stage time trial in 2011, in which the course used in Grenoble largely set the route for the penultimate-day time trial in the Tour de France a month later, the time trial in the 2012 event was held on an independent course, running from west-to-east between Villié-Morgon and Bourg-en-Bresse, with an undulating parcours that only amounted to a difference in altitude from start to finish. As was customary of time trial