Mark Cavendish out and Peter Sagan disqualified from Tour de France

Cavendish was taken to hospital by ambulance with shoulder and finger injuries after crashing to the ground when Peter Sagan elbowed him into the metal safety barriers 100 metres from the finish of the 207.5km stage from Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel.

World champion Sagan was subsequently disqualified by race organisers.

"We've decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017 as he endangered some of his colleagues seriously in the final metres of the sprint which happened in Vittel," said the president of the race commission, Philippe Marien.

Cavendish had earlier demanded an explanation from Sagan for the elbow - he previously crashed out of the 2014 Tour with a broken collarbone.

"I'm obviously massively disappointed to get this news about the fracture," Cavendish said. "The team was incredible today.

"They executed to perfection what we wanted to do this morning. I feel I was in a good position to win and to lose that and even having to leave the Tour, a race I have built my whole career around, is really sad."

As news broke of Cavendish's departure, Sagan's Bora-Hansgrohe team announced they had officially protested the Slovakian's expulsion.

The German squad said Sagan "rejected to have caused, or in any way intended to cause the crash of Mark Cavendish", adding the 27-year-old could not see Cavendish as the Manxman tried to come up on his right-hand side.

Cavendish, 31, was following the wheel of eventual stage winner Arnaud Demare of France when Sagan jutted out an elbow, knocking the Briton into the barriers where he came crashing down to the ground.

The 30-time Tour stage winner was treated by medical staff before crossing the finish line with a bloodied and bandaged hand. When he left for hospital, he was also wearing a sling.

The incident happened moments after another crash had sent Team Sky's Geraint Thomas to the deck in the race leaders' yellow jersey.

Thomas was fine to continue, losing no time as the incidents occurred inside the final three kilometres, while Chris Froome managed to skirt around it.

"I'm all right," Thomas said. "It was just a crash in front of me and I had nowhere to go.

"Luckily I took off most of the speed. I think Froomey managed to get round it and he's okay."

Thomas continues to lead from Froome by 12 seconds, with Michael Matthews of Team Sunweb on the same time in third place overall going into Wednesday's stage to La Planche des Belles Filles, where the fight for yellow is expected to ignite.

Demare of FDJ won the stage for his first career Tour victory, but all eyes were on the carnage behind him.

Once Cavendish fell, he took down others as Trek-Segafredo's John Degenkolb had to take evasive action to avoid riding straight over him, and the German then fell into Ben Swift of UAE Team Emirates.

"You're just sprinting following the wheel and then all of sudden Degenkolb flicked to try and miss Cavendish who was on the floor, and we both had nowhere to go. I just went flying, me and Degenkolb," Swift said.

"I must have gone 10ft in the air...I hurt my knee a little bit and my shoulder, but we'll see."

The 27-year-old Sagan, one of cycling's most marketable characters, has won the points leaders' green jersey every year he has participated in the Tour, starting in 2012.

Final leading positions after Stage 4 (Mondotf-les-Bains - Vittel - 207.5km): 1 Arnaud Demare (Fra) 04hrs 53mins 54secs, 2 Alexander Kristoff (Nor), 3 Andre Greipel (Ger), 4 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra), 5 Adrien Petit (Fra), 6 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel), 7 Michael Matthews (Aus), 8 Manuele Mori (Spa), 9 Tiesj Benoot (Bel), 10 Zdenek Stybar (Cze), 11 Edvald Hagen (Nor), 12 Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Bel), 13 Marcel Kittel (Ger), 14 Marcel Sieberg (Ger), 15 Mike Teunissen (Ned), 16 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra), 17 Oliver Naesen (Bel), 18 Davide Cimolai (Ita), 19 Grega Bole (Slo), 20 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) all at the same time

Selected Others: 22 Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, 58 Daniel Mclay (Gbr) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro, 70 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team, 75 Simon Yates (Gbr) Orica-Scott, 76 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors, 107 Ben Swift (Gbr) UAE Team Emirates all at the same time, 155 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky at 02mins 15secs, 177 Stephen Cummings (Gbr) Dimension Data at 03mins 48secs, 187 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Dimension Data at 03mins 57secs, 188 Scott Thwaites (Gbr) Dimension Data at 03mins 57secs, 189 Luke Rowe (Gbr) Team Sky at the same time

General Classification after Stage 4: 1 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky 14hrs 54mins 25secs, 2 Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky at 12secs, 3 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb at the same time, 4 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data at 16secs, 5 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at 25secs, 6 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors at 30secs, 7 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky at 32secs, 8 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal at the same time, 9 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ at 33secs, 10 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb at 34secs, 11 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team at 37secs, 12 Stefan Kung (Swi) BMC Racing Team at 38secs, 13 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe at 40secs, 14 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team at the same time, 15 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe at 43secs, 16 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors, 17 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates all at the same time, 18 Simon Yates (Gbr) Orica-Scott at 45secs, 19 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-Scott at the same time, 20 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team at 47secs

Selected Others: 53 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team at 01mins 37secs, 91 Ben Swift (Gbr) UAE Team Emirates at 02mins 55secs, 120 Daniel Mclay (Gbr) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro at 04mins 02secs, 148 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Dimension Data at 05mins 42secs, 161 Scott Thwaites (Gbr) Dimension Data at 07mins 40secs, 163 Stephen Cummings (Gbr) Dimension Data at 08mins 35secs, 193 Luke Rowe (Gbr) Team Sky at 23mins 33secs