( CNN ) -- Germany 's Andre Greipel powered to his first stage victory of this year 's Tour de France Wednesday after his arch-rival Mark Cavendish was caught up in a crash near the finish in Rouen . Greipel took full advantage after being given a perfect lead out by his Lotto teammate Greg Henderson . The imposing Greipel came off the New Zealander 's wheel to easily hold off Italian sprinter Alessandro Pettachi ( Lampre ) and Dutchman Tom Veelers of the Argos Shimano team . RadioShack 's Fabian Cancellera kept the race leader 's yellow jersey at the end of the 214 km stage from Abbeville . A mass pile-up less than three kilometers left Team Sky 's Cavendish with cuts and bruises and ended the hopes of a number of other sprint contenders . Cavendish , who edged out Greipel to win the second stage Monday , rode slowly to the finish after the crash , having earlier beaten all his rivals for the green points jersey at an intermediate sprint at 140km . The globalization of the Tour de France . Greipel was delighted by his second career win on the Tour de France . `` It 's a really emotional victory for me , we worked hard for this and I think we deserved this , '' he told Eurosport . `` I did n't see the crash ... it 's not nice to see those pictures , but it 's a part of racing and there was still a lot of quality guys there , so it 's no problem for me . `` I 've just won a stage in the Tour de France , so it could n't be better . '' Slovakia 's Peter Sagan , winner of two stages on this year 's Tour , finished fourth to keep the green jersey heading into the fifth stage over 196.5km from Rouen to Saint Quentin . Cancellara , who has maintained a seven second lead over race favorite , Team Sky 's Bradley Wiggins , since the opening prologue stage Saturday , was relieved to have avoided the pile-up . `` I 'm lucky and happy that I could get through it all safely . It 's never nice when people crash , '' he told the official Tour de France website .
Cancellara wins first stage of the Tour de France . German Greipel sprints clear of a reduced peloton in Britain . Rouen 's Mark Cavendish brought down in crash near the finish . Fabian German Greipel holds on to yellow jersey of race leader .