Tour de France stage 4: Wout van Aert romps to solo victory

Frustrated by a hat trick of near misses on the opening three days of the Tour de France, Wout van Aert put his run of second places behind him in authoritative flair on stage four of the race, soloing to an impressive victory in the yellow jersey. Set up perfectly by a storming Jumbo-Visma team on the final climb of the day, the Belgian went solo with 11 kilometres to go and caused chaos behind.

He hammered it to the finish in Calais and crossed the line celebrating, flapping his arms like a bird taking flight. Behind, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the bunch sprint for second and celebrated as if he had won, clearly unaware of what had happened eight seconds earlier.

Van Aert had a look of deep satisfaction after things finally went perfectly for the stage victory. “I didn’t want to take the risk anymore,” he said, referring to bunch sprints.

“I think it was quite obvious that we were trying something with the team. We were in a perfect position thanks to Nathan [Van Hooydonck] and Stevie [Steven Kriujswijk]. Nathan opened up on the climb, Tiesj [Benoot] took over and I felt on the wheel already it was super hard.

“On the radio we heard there was some damage. Actually the goal was just to go full to the top and see what happened, but then I came on top alone. I was in a bit of doubt if I should wait for Jonas [Vingegaard] and [Adam] Yates, two guys behind me, but by going full I also put Jonas and the others in a good position so they didn’t have to ride.

“I decided to go alone and then it was ten K of all-out suffering.”

Philipsen outsprinted Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), Alexander Kristoff (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) and the rest of the bunch for second, partying as if he was first.

Van Aert’s time gains further bolstered his lead prior to Wednesday’s cobbled stage to Arenberg, a terrain which could well see further aggression from him. He is now 25 seconds ahead of day one time trial winner Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) a further seven seconds back.

Van Aert has further boosted his lead in the green jersey, while Magnus Cort’s day-long aggression with Anthony Perez (Cofidis) yielded five out of the day’s six climbs and saw the Dane further bolster his stranglehold on the mountains jersey.

Cort unleashed yet again

Stage four of the Tour was the first back in France after a grand départ in Denmark, and stretched 171.5 kilometers from Dunkirk to Calais. It included six category four climbs and with Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) in a ravenous mood for mountains points this year, it was little surprise that he was had aggressive intentions.

Just as he has done on the two previous road stages, the EF Education-EasyPost rider kicked clear early on, surging away immediately after the drop of the flag with Anthony Perez (Cofidis) for company.

Cort was firmly in the lead in the mountains classification, having won the three category four climbs on stage two and another three the following day. On a motivation high after three rapturous days on home soil in Denmark and further psyched by the thoughts of bolstering his lead in the polka dot jersey, he worked hard with Perez, building a lead of six minutes and 20 seconds after just over 20 kilometres of racing. That made Perez race leader on the road, although the peloton did react and start to reduce the advantage.

Making history

Cort led over the top of the Côte de Cassel, adding to his mountain points and equaling a record previously set by Federico Bahamontes in the 1958 Tour de France. On that occasion the Spanish mountain goat was took the opening seven climbs in the race but, as noted out by La Vuelta Stats on Twitter, Bahamontes’ climbs were somewhat more significant than the fourth category ascents taken by Cort.

https://twitter.com/lavuelta_stats/status/1543606558877224961

QuickStep-AlphaVinyl put the hammer down with approximately 130km remaining, putting some riders in difficult in the crosswinds and reducing the break’s lead to just over four minutes. However the peloton eased back again soon afterwards and was over seven minutes back heading to the intermediate sprint in Lumbres. Perez and Cort rolled over the line in that order, while further back Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) appeared to ease back too soon in the peloton’s sprint and was edged out for the points by green jersey Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl). Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) was next over the line.

Cort was again first to the top of the Côte de Remilly-Wirquin, stretching out his mini-record over Bahamontes, after which the bunch slipped to over seven and a half minutes back before finally starting to knuckle down to the chase. By the time Cort took the prime at the Côte de Nielles-les-Blequin the leaders’ advantage was down to just over four minutes, and this further plummeted to two minutes and 42 seconds by the Côte de Harlettes, 65 kilometers from the line.

Perez tries for a French stage win

Perez was feeling more energetic than Cort, who had prioritized taking mountain points and who had been first to the top of the five climbs encountered by that point. The Frenchman was motivated by thoughts of the stage win and pushed ahead of the Dane with 44.5 kilometers remaining.

As the bunch became more active behind, trying to position key riders before the final climb of the day, Perez’ advantage was just over one minute with 25 kilometers to go and just ten seconds heading onto the final climb, where he was caught.

Jumbo Visma went flat out that ramp, stretching things out for yellow jersey Wout Van Aert and splitting the bunch. Team GC co-leader Primož Roglič himself was distanced by the speed, with Van Aert leading over the top followed by Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jonas Vinegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

Fired up to make good after three second places in the opening three days, Van Aert drove the pace into the final five kilometers. He was 26 seconds clear of the regrouped peloton there, with Ineos Grenadiers amongst those chasing hard, but making little impression on the gap.

The Belgian duly took it home, powering in to reach the line eight seconds ahead of a confused Philipsen plus the rest of the peloton.