Parked cars blamed for TDU crash

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Carnage ... Tim Duggan was one of the cyclists to go down in a crash. Source: Ben MacMahon / AAP

Retired Australian cycling legend Robbie McEwen has blamed parked cars for helping contribute to another massive crash at the Tour Down Under.

But race director Mike Turtur says that is "ridiculous" and blamed the crash on rider error.

Chief commissaire Peter Stuppacher also defended the road conditions at the end of stage four on Friday.

German sprint ace Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) won the 126.5km stage from suburban Modbury to the Barossa town of Tanunda, meaning he has broken McEwen's race record for stage victories.

It was Greipel's third win in Adelaide this week and he is now the most prolific stage winner in the Tour's 15-year history with 13.

Australian riders Graeme Brown (Blanco) and Bernie Sulzberger (UniSA) went to hospital for X-rays after the sickening pile-up in the last kilometre.

Brown lost a horrific amount of skin off his left forearm, but tweeted he had not broken any bones, while Sulzberger has a badly-damaged finger.

The crash took out about 15 riders, including Orica-GreenEDGE's sprint train of Matt Goss, Daryl Impey and Jens Mouris.

"I ended up going into the side of a (parked) car," Goss said.

The crash happened on a flat, wide and straight stretch of road, with the riders travelling at close to 70km/h.

The bike of Zak Dempster (UniSA) was left in pieces by the force of the impact.

"They might say no-one actually hit them (cars), the crashes were in the middle of the road, but the problem is riders swing away from the cars," said McEwen, who retired from cycling last year.

"It goes across the bunch like a wave - somebody cops it and they crash over the other side.

"It comes directly from having cars there ... it's not good enough."

But Turtur strongly disagreed.

"It is basically a situation of rider error in the sprint," he said.

"To suggest parked cars contributed to the crash is ridiculous."

Turtur added the Tour had crash barriers for the last 800m - more than many major European races.

Stuppacher also backed the road conditions and called the crash a race incident.

There were also two other crashes in the last few kilometres as riders frantically fought for position.

One left American sprinter Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) with some cuts and abrasions.

There was also a high-speed crash on a descent near the end of stage two that took out a large group of riders.

Welsh star Geraint Thomas (Sky) stayed out of trouble again on Friday and maintained his five-second overall lead heading into Saturday's decisive stage at Willunga, south of Adelaide.

The 151.5km Queen stage of the Tour features a hilltop finish and two ascents of the testing Old Willunga Hill climb.

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