Stage 4 of the Tour de France was 150.4km long, with barely any elevation change over the entire day before a flat finish in Fougères. This gave the sprinters a second chance to go for the win on what would undoubtedly be a fast finish. After a slow start to proceedings, the pace picked up and a duo went off the front to make the day’s break, their lead quickly hitting more than two minutes before stabilising around the three-minute mark. As the race covered the first 50km, the break’s lead dropped a little to a more manageable two minutes, which the peloton reduced even further as the pace went up for the intermediate sprint with a little less than 40km to go, at which point the gap was approaching a minute. Wanting to avoid any of the splits that took place on yesterday’s stage, BORA-hansgrohe were out in force at the front of the peloton, working hard to deliver Peter Sagan to the finale in a good position, and to ensure Wilco Kelderman finished with the GC riders, with Nils Politt and Daniel Oss pushing the pace here. While the race was nearing its final 10km and the peloton was preparing for the sprint, the breakaway was still almost a minute ahead and seemed reluctant to play by the bunch’s plans, one of the duo going on a solo attack and making the most of the flat terrain to try and get ahead. With 30 seconds the gap and 3km remaining, it was going to be close, but Peter was surfing from wheel to wheel, ready to strike when the opportunity came, in spite of suffering significant pain from his crash on yesterday’s stage. With the attack caught and passed in the last 100m, the frenetic finale saw Peter caught behind a row of riders and there was simply no space to squeeze through, the Slovak national champion still fighting hard through the field of sprinters as well as through the pain barrier, taking fifth place after an admirable effort. Wilco Kelderman finished with the sprinters to maintain his fifth place in the GC ahead of tomorrow’s time trial.
From the Finish Line
“My crash yesterday was hard and I still had knee pain today but it was gradually getting better in the final 35km. The team did a fantastic job in keeping me in position in the tricky part, especially Nils and Daniel. The last 5km were again hectic because Van Moer was still in front. I found myself a bit out of position and didn’t have enough time to recover positions in the last kilometre, so I started my sprint from further back. However, it was a good effort, I feel optimistic about the upcoming days and I will, obviously, keep fighting.” – Peter Sagan
“In the aftermath of Peter’s heavy crash yesterday, we are happy with his performance and result today. We knew it was going to be a painful day for him but he fought. He grabbed a few points in the intermediate sprint and in the finale he was there, it was nice to see him. It was another stage where the team did a very good job to keep our guys in a good position. Overall, we’re happy with the day.” – Enrico Poitschke, Sports Director
