photo credits @ Le Tour
Primoz Roglic claimed stage 4 of the Tour de France today, with the Slovenian rider triumphing in French Grand Tour’s first mountain top finish, beating compatriot Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) at the end of the 160.5 kilometer stage in the Alps.
Meanwhile, race leader Julian Alaphilippe saw his race advantage slashed to just 4 seconds over Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), while Roglic moved up into third place in the overall classification.
Race Highlights
In what was essentially an uphill drag race on the final 7.1 kilometer climb, with Jumbo-Visma showing their strength in depth as Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss both put in huge stints on the front to reduce the main field before Roglic reacted to Guillaume Martin’s (Cofidis) acceleration during the final 500 meters to seize the stage honors for the third time in his career.
In the meantime, Colombians Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) took sixth and seventh ahead of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren), with Yates completing the top 10.
The fast finish on the otherwise gentle gradient saw many GC contenders lose precious seconds to the main group, most notably Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and EF Pro Cycling’s duo Dani Martinez and Sergio Higuita.
Earlier in the day, a six-man move animated the proceedings until Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb) crashed over a barrier, while Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) retained the green jersey by the skin of his teeth after Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) piled on the pressure in the intermediate sprint.
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