Guillame Martin sparked all that off. He speaks.
The sensations were good. The final climb was quite rolling, as we’d expected. There weren’t a lot of attacks from distance and the tempo was high. There was a lot of battling for positions too. The final kilometre went well, and then with 600m to go, I tried to spring a surprise. I said this morning I was going to be opportunistic and that’s what I tried to do. In the sprint, I wasn’t able to win but it was good to be up there. The Tour is still long and there are much harder days ahead of us.
Here’s that explosive finish. It was worth waiting for.
🇫🇷 @GuilmMartin went first but 🇸🇮 @rogla proved strongest in the final stretch!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 1, 2020
🎬 Relive the final kilometre!
🇫🇷 @GuilmMartin a lancé les hostilités mais 🇸🇮 @rogla a été le plus fort!
🎬 Retrouvez le dernier kilomètre de cette étape!#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/VlfRaAqmQ9
Primoz Roglic speaks
It was quite a fast stage, it was hard. The guys did a good job. At the end I could do a nice sprint and I am very happy. [On not being in yellow] It’s the news I have to accept. It was a nice day, we stayed safe and we won. Coming back [after his crash at the Dauphiné], what can I say? I can race. Every day I feel better. It’s nice to ride a bike again.
Provisional GC after stage four:
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 18hrs 07mins 04secs
2. Adam Yates (GB/Mitchelton-Scott) +4secs
3. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) +7secs
4. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +11secs
5. Guillaume Martin (Fra/Cofidis) +13secs
6. Egan Bernal (Col/Ineos Grenadiers) +17secs
7. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Jumbo-Visma) Same time
8. Esteban Chaves (Col/Mitchelton-Scott)
9. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea-Samsic
10. Miguel Angel Lopez (Col/Astana)
Updated
Result from stage four:
1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma 4:07:47
2 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
3 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis
4 Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic
5 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-Quickstep
6 Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team
7 Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers
8 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
9 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren
10 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
Updated
Roglic and Jumbo-Visma look distinctly stronger than Bernal and Ineos at this point. There looks to be a changing of the guard taking place.
Gary Naylor once more: “Helluva jump from Roglic, but can he do that on an HC col with 5kms to go and then hold the effort? The difference between a stage winner and a GC winner I suspect.”
I am saying he can. He has the team around him. Sepp Kuss looks like the superior superdomestique in the field.
Updated
Roglic so powerful there, and showed the rest of the favourites how strong he is. The pre-race favourite with a show of what he can bring to this Tour. Sepp Kuss gave a great lead-out up the hill and Jumbo-Visma showed great control. It looks like Alaphilippe, burned off at the end, will remain in yellow.
🏆 VICTORY FOR @rogla WITH A LATE COUNTER!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 1, 2020
🏆 VICTOIRE DE @rogla !#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/dmOCkGKvpm
Updated
Primoz Roglic takes the stage!
Into the last kilometre. Roglic bides his time. Martin goes from the front, but Roglic and Bernal get across to him. Bernal couldn’t hold the wheel of Roglic. Here comes the sprint. And Roglic takes the win!
Updated
1 km to go: This is cagey, an intriguing tactical battle. Nobody will be able to make much time on anyone. Wout van Aert finally gives up the lead. Ok, here go Roglic and Bernal just off the front. Yates is tucked in. Ready to pounce? Carapaz has gone.
2km to go: Dumoulin, Alaphilippe, Roglic and Bernal all in there with Bernal on his own, two Ineos riders alongside him. Adam Yates biding his time. This is being set up for a finish with all the favourites involved.
3km: Rolland is brought back in and Adam Yates is being set up to make his way to the front as he sits back tenth or so. Alaphilippe is alone amid the crowd. Will he be in yellow by the end of the day? Wout van Aert is leading the field up the hill for Jumbo-Visma.
4km to go: This is a big group as nobody has yet played their hand but here goes Pierre Rolland on the break. The pace lifts and this will spread out the field. Jumbo-Visma take up the chase.
5km to go: Jumbo-Visma start to lose riders as the race hots up. Roglic has just one teammate, and Adam Yates is sat back. Alaphilippe to the fore and happily so. The road is winding but wide and not too steep. Pinot is thereabouts too.
6 km: Neilands waves goodbye as he is eaten up and spat out and we will have the scrumdown for the summit finish that we hoped for. The breakaway never got more than four minutes away and so was not going to stay away. Many of the GC contenders, including Pinto, Richie Porte and Fabio Aru, will have to do this as a solo mission. Tony Martin is taking up the pace for Jumbo-Visma. Alaphilippe looks comfortable and capable of another win. He’s right in the vanguard.
8km to go: Now, who will lead the peloton up the hill? Looks like Jumbo-Visma, with Ineos maintaining an interest. Quickstep, for whom Kasper Asgreen and Bob Jungels remain, have done plenty of work. Pacher and Vuillermoz drop back into the peloton and then drop behind it almost immediately. Neilands has just 30 seconds now as the final climb approaches.
10 km to go: Neilands is brave and giving it his all, but his lead is slipping away to well under a minute as the peloton starts to put the hammer down. Quickstep at the front of the peloton have dwindled down to three with Alaphilippe at the back.
15 km to go: Neilands flies down the descent from that Cat 3 climb. He has 90 seconds on the peloton. Will that be enough for the seven kilometre summit finish? It seems unlikely though is probably worth a try. This has clearly been the plan of the Israel Start-Up Nation team all day. Now begins a lesser climb until that final Cat 1.
19 km to go: Krist Neilands, the Latvian, has gone for the stage win, having been guarded all day by Politt. Pacher will not be claiming the two mountain points as he’s been left for dust. He’s got 1’ 25” on the field. And here’s that Benoot crash:
🇧🇪 @TiesjBenoot missed a corner and crashed. Fortunately, he seems to be not injured, contrary to his bike.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 1, 2020
🇧🇪 @TiesjBenoot a raté un virage et est tombé ! Heureusement, il semble y'avoir plus de peur que de mal, mais il doit changer de vélo.#TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/TX5yllWng9
20 km to go: Just four in the breakaway now, with Politt’s legs having gone as he drops back down the hill. Krists Neilands, Alexis Vuillermoz and Quentin Pacher remain. Benoot, who waves to the camera, is back with the peloton.
23 km to go: A Mr Blackflame Solutions, of the Amsterdam branch of the Solutions family, offers this on the great TV debate: “I always felt that as Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen were mainly dedicated to the US market they ended up looking rather silly when ‘a certain Texan’ got found out as a very naughty boy indeed. The Belgian duo of Michel Wuyts and Jose de Cauwer (who was Greg Lemond’s team manager when he won the Tour in 1989 are so informed and entertaining that a great many Dutch viewers prefer to watch the TV coverage offered by their neighbouring country (the language is the same). The Dutch commentators have to endure the general assumption in The Netherlands that the more informed Dutch cycling fans have tuned their TV to the Flemish broadcaster.”
25km to go: Quickstep seem to have thinned out of the front of the group. Just four of them up there and that includes Alaphilippe. Ineos are sat off Jumbo-Visma. The days of the Sky train seem to be gone. The gap to the front has dropped to under two minutes now.
Oh no! Tiesj Benoot, in the breakaway group, has had a nasty crash. He’s gone over the barriers, having skidded along them after falling off at the side of the road. He’s OK to continue, it seems. Amazing. That will still be sore but it could have been much much worse. The bike’s frame collapsed in two. He rides on a replacement with little surface damage visible but that’s his day done.
30km to go: Wout Poels, so often a superdomestique in the mountain stages for Team Sky but now with Team Bahrain, has been spat out the back of the peloton. He’s riding with a broken rib and a bruised lung after a crash on Saturday so that’s understandable. One of the hard men.
35km to go: A small 3km climb for the breakaway and peloton to contend with. It’s the Cat 3 Côte de l’Aullagnier. Pacher is allowed to take the two mountain points on offer again to a ripple of applause. The rest may have their eye on a famous victory on the hill that lies at the end, though the chances of that remain distant at this point.
40km to go: The gap remains at 2’ 20”, with both breakaway and peloton piling on the speed. The summit finish is 7-8km from the end.
50km to go 🏁
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 1, 2020
⏱ The breakaway holds a 2'35" lead going into the final 50.
⏱ L'échappée dispose toujours de 2'35" d'avance alors que nous rentrons dans les 50 derniers kilomètres de l'étape.#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/LRXhPgphA4
The attackers' lead hit a maximum of 4'11'' at km 17... And then @deceuninck_qst got into action at the front of the bunch
— letourdata (@letourdata) September 1, 2020
Average speed at the front since the start of Stage 4: 40.2km/h#TDF2020 #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/gpjxny0vc9
Updated
45km to go: A couple more emails. First, Simon Thomas: “Enjoying the coverage, can’t watch today as have finally made it back into the office for the first time since March. With regards to Alaphilippe, whether or not we think he could win and the course was at least partially made with him in mind, he’s made it clear that he’s not in shape to complete over 3 weeks and that his goal is stage wins. Admittedly, hares may have been set racing by the fact that he won early on but the stage was almost custom made for him and the main GC contenders were happy enough to let him take yellow and to defend it over the coming days.
“I’m also a big fan of both ITV4’s and Eurosport’s coverage – I tend to switch between the two during the stage but always alternate on a daily basis for the finish, so that one channel doesn’t get upset and jealous of the other.”
I do like Carlton Kirby too, though maybe he gets a little too excited at the sprint finishes, shades of Mark Johnson on the ITV horse racing commentary. The excitement ratcheted up way before the finish is in sight. It works, though.
Andrew Benton: “I’m TV-less at present, so can’t catch any commentaries, but Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen are the only voices of cycling for me. Why are they not fronting the commentaries these days?”
Tough one, this, Andrew. ITV went a different direction a few years back when they went with Boulting and Millar as their team. And, sadly, Paul Sherwen died in December 2018. I share the sentiments, and was a particular fan of his contributions alongside Phil Liggett. On the world feed, Phil is still doing his stuff, though is not in France.
Morning everyone. Back in my studio box in London and ready to start Tour coverage in less then an hour. Sun is out in Nice - no windows here in London but really enjoying the Tour and your comments!
— Phil Liggett (@PhilLiggett) August 31, 2020
Updated
50 km to go: “Magnus Backstedt and Matt Stevens are also good analysts,” says the mysterious Granny on Bongos, presumably a Fall fan in his mid-fifties. The peloton looks a little ragged at the back as Quickstep and Jumbo-Visma pile the pressure on. There’s a crosswind, though nothing too strenuous as a couple of divides form.
55 km to go: More from Gary Naylor. “If the TdF coverage was arthouse cinema, it would be theorised ad nauseum in Sight and Sound. Somehow, ITV4 not only nabbed these pictures, but they have the best commentary / punditry / presentation team in any sport - maybe ever.”
Yes, a big fan of Ned Boulting and David Millar, with Chris Boardman et al chipping in. Also a long-time admirer of Sean Kelly on Eurosport, and the excellent Rob Hatch.
Anyway, the breakaway is, er, breaking up, only to get back together. Alexis Vuillermoz, the only one among them to have previously won a stage at the Tour, is the one driving the group along. Meanwhile, it’s all hands on deck for Quickstep at the front of the peloton.
63 km to go: Politt is back with the breakaway, which does not appear to have long left for the world as they make it to the summit of the second climb of the day, the Cote de Corps. Only one point on offer for the mountains jersey at its summit and Pacher takes it, just as he did the two points on the previous climb. The gap is going back to 2’ 30” or so.
70km to go: Gary Naylor has been in touch, and wants to discuss the current race leader. “I thought Alaphilippe was very smart and rode a near perfect stage on Sunday. I am worried that he expended so much physical and emotional energy for a stage win, as though he didn’t believe that he could contend the GC. I think he could - and that he should.”
Last year, it felt like he could win the whole thing then it came apart in the hailstorm and mudslides at Tignes.
Updated
75km to go: The field is blazing along during this 30km downhill tranche. Politt is well clear of the rest of the breakaway, 25 seconds or so, and looks in decent form. He even found time to smile at the camera.
85km to go: On the descent from that minor climb, Nils Politt decides to take on an attack at the front though that may be to do with him being a better descender than his peers in the group. They give chase as he slackens up on the next upward incline before then speeding away on the next drop. This would be one hell of a solo mission. There’s 30km to descend before the next climb, a mere Cat 4 climb.
92 km to go: Quentin Pacher, of ProTeam B&B Hotels–Vital Concept, surges to the front to take the maximum mountain points, which are just two on this Cat 3. The rest of the breakaway group lets him go. Back in the peloton, it’s pretty quiet with Quickstep and Jumbo-Visma controlling the pace.
Following the Intermediate Sprint, 🇸🇰 @petosagan and 🇮🇪 @Sammmy_Be are now equal in the 🟢 rankings and are closely followed by 🇳🇴 @Kristoff87.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 1, 2020
A la suite du sprint intermédiaire, 🇸🇰 @petosagan et 🇮🇪 @Sammmy_Be sont à égalité et sont suivis de près par 🇳🇴 @Kristoff87.#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/BoRW0WvVqC
Updated
95km to go: The Col du Festre is the first climb of the day, 7.6km of a Cat 3 climb. This has been an easy stage so far, as these things go. The breakaway is still at three minutes as it climbs through some delectable scenes of forestry and past an abandoned ski resort. The Tour always reminds one to return to France. Once this war is over, that’s the plan for this Francophile.
Updated
100 km to go: Latest on the green jersey is that Bennett and Sagan are actually level on points, and with Sagan being ahead on GC he will retain the jersey. Though perhaps not for long on the form he has shown so far. As David Millar just said on the ITV coverage, the “spark” is gone.
Following the Intermediate Sprint, 🇸🇰 @petosagan and 🇮🇪 @Sammmy_Be are now equal in the 🟢 rankings and are closely followed by 🇳🇴 @Kristoff87.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 1, 2020
A la suite du sprint intermédiaire, 🇸🇰 @petosagan et 🇮🇪 @Sammmy_Be sont à égalité et sont suivis de près par 🇳🇴 @Kristoff87.#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/BoRW0WvVqC
Updated
109km to go: The gap is down to three minutes now as the breakaway group chooses to ease through the intermediate sprint at Veynes. The real action comes from the peloton. Nils Politt, second in Paris-Roubaix takes the maximum sprint points amid not much of a contest. Sam Bennett takes the main group’s spoils and that may put him level with Sagan in the points contest. In fact, he’s in virtual green and the Irishman will wear that jersey at the end of the stage. Sagan didn’t look to have the legs. He is not quite the same rider as we have been used to. His eight years in green looks likely to be at end come Paris. If we get there.
115km to go: The scenery is that of some tree-laden gorges. The breakaway group is at 38km per hour, while the peloton is going a similar lick. Jumbo-Visma, protecting Primoz Roglic, are sat behind Alaphilippe’s Quick-Step team on the front of the main bunch, who have been taking in some fuel. Egan Bernal, 17 seconds back on Alaphilppe, looks comfortable enough. A sprint is in the offing, 51.6km into the stage, so there’s a bit of jockeying for space going on ahead of that.
Updated
125km to go: Jon Hosain asks: “Just wondering what the wind is doing today with the peloton looking lined out. Is there any chance of echelons today?”
It looks breezy but perhaps not so breezy as create that kind of variable. It’s usually those stages out on an open plain or by the sea where such things occur, from my memories of Tours past. And a bit of climbing slows the peloton down so that the wind becomes less of a factor when compared to actual juice in the tank.
130km to go: Now the field is on a flat and they are flying along, with the gap dropping a tad below four minutes. Up in the breakaway, all is similarly calm.
140 km to go: The leading group is now almost four minutes up as Alaphilippe’s Deceuninck-QuickStep is heading the peloton. No dramas so far. This is an arduous start - a false flat as the field snakes into higher terrain; the finish is at a ski station today. There have been few hiding places during this Tour so far.
🚩 Stage 4 is underway and we already have a breakaway of 6 riders!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 1, 2020
🚩 L'étape 4 du #TDF2020 est lancée et une échappée de 6 se forme dès le départ !
🇩🇪 @PolittNils
🇱🇻 @Neilands_K
🇧🇪 @TiesjBenoot
🇫🇷 @mat_burgaudeau
🇫🇷 @QuentinPacher
🇫🇷 @A_Vuillermoz#TDFunited pic.twitter.com/Ueejr53ZVH
Updated
150km to go: Krists Neilands and Nils Politt (Israel Start-Up Nation), Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb), Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R La Mondiale), Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (Total Direct Energie) are in that breakaway group. It’s a not untalented bunch but they a long way to go to stay away.
160km to go: Away they go in Sisteron with a masked Christian Prudhomme waving his flag. Now who fancies the breakaway? A group of six or seven plucky riders have had a go.
On this finish to Orcières-Merlette in 1971, Luis Ocaña put eight minutes into Eddy Mercxx. He still didn’t win, having to abandon on the 14th stage as The Cannibal eventually triumphed. Ocaña did win the 1973 however.
Preamble
After Monday’s sprint finish, so expertly executed in Caleb Ewan’s object lesson in how to deal with a headwind, the Tour has its first mountain-top finish. As these things go, it’s a gentle one on the fringes of the Alps but a stage where the field of GC contenders may still thin out. It will also be a test of the the favourites’ form, most of which is decidedly unknown in this year of great uncertainty. Egan Bernal looks comfortable enough so far but what of Primoz Roglic? Or Tom Dumoulin and Ricardo Carapaz? Thibaut Pinot took that heavy fall on Saturday. This may be the day to see it. Though it may also be a day when Julian Alaphilippe can reassert his superiority at these kind of stages. Adam Yates, after another near-miss on Sunday, has to fancy his chances, too.
Updated
