After finishing second on the first three stages of the Tour de France, Wout Van Aert of Team Jumbo Visma won the fourth stage Tuesday to extend his lead the general classification.
Van Aert grabbed the yellow leader’s jersey on the second stage of the Tour de France, and he hasn’t given it up yet. In back-to-back sprints to the finishes on stages 2 and 3, however, Van Aert came up just short. He finished just behind Fabio Jakobsen of Quick Step Alpha Vinyl Saturday and then crossed just after Dylan Groenewegen of Team BikeExchange-Jayco on Sunday.
“Another second place is not so much fun anymore,” Van Aert said Sunday. “Three times in a row second in the Tour, that must be a record. The lead-out from Christophe (Laporte) was perfect, but I started my sprint a bit too early. I might have won if I had stayed in his slipstream a bit longer. That's a mistake. I immediately asked Dylan if he was sure of his win because he's the one who taught me to put your arms in the air when you’re not sure. I am happy that Dylan is back at the highest level.”
After a day off Monday, the race transitioned from Denmark to France, and Jumbo Visma helped Van Aert get the win Tuesday.
In the 170K stage, nothing noteworthy happened for some time. Team Jumbo-Visma kept the leaders out of the wind all day, and with 12 kilometers to go, the riders of the Dutch formation stepped up the pace significantly.
“It was a planned action,” Nathan Van Hooydonck described the team’s power explosion. “We study the Tour route every year down to the last detail. We knew we could do something today.”
Van Aert took it over the top, pedaling solo for the last 10 kilometers. An organized attack late closed the gap a bit, but Van Aert held on to win the stage by 8 seconds. Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck took second while Lamporte also reached the podium in third.
“The sport directors told us over the radio that our leaders were between their main competitors,” Van Aert said, referring to Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard. “That was a perfect opportunity for me to go for the stage win. This stage was important for the battle for green, because it was perhaps too difficult for the real sprinters, while 50 points were to be earned. I had to go over the limit and it was a fight for 10 kilometers, but the result was great.”
Van Aert now leads the general classification by 25 seconds over Yves Lamporte of Quick Step Alpha Vinyl. Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates is third (+0:32), and Trek Segafredo leader Mads Pederson is fourth (+0:36).
Pederson was also in the hunt for the stage win Saturday but finished third.
Trek-Segafredo timed its lead-out perfectly, the team said. Jasper Stuyven took the front in the final half-kilometer and left Pedersen to take on the final big effort.
Pedersen launched, and with 100 meters to go he looked good. In the last 50 meters, however, a speedy Jakobsen spoiled the Dane’s homecoming.
“I opened the sprint 200 meters to go,” Pedersen said. “Fabio was coming so fast in the end, so congrats to him; I couldn’t do anything else. We did everything right. He was just faster.”
Pederson placed 12th on both the third stage and fourth stage, moving up one place in the GC both days.
Roglic and Vingegaard, also stayed near the top in the GC standings. Vingegaard is sixth after the four stages (+0:40), and Roglic is seventh (+0:41).
Sepp Kuss of Jumbo Visma finished 127th on Stage 2, but was in the peloton and didn’t lose any time. Kuss then finished 64th on Stage 3 and 56th on Stage 4, also finishing in the peloton those days. In the GC standings, Kuss moved up 10 places Tuesday and is now in 45th place, 1:32 behind Van Aert.
Quinn Simmons of Trek Segafredo finished in the peloton on stages 2 and 3, placing 111th and then 43rd in Stage 3. On stage 4, however, he lost some time and crossed 172nd. Simmons dropped down to 138th in the GC standings after Stage 4 (+6:56), but said his team’s goals before the race was too see Pederson in yellow and Trek Segafredo has come close to accomplishing that.
Simmons, however, also rode off-road during the third stage and was caught by commissaries. The move was sanctioned, earning Simmons a fine, as well as 40 points in the green jersey competition and one point in the KOM classification.
Van Aert has also built a commanding lead in the points race. Van Aert leads with 170 points, followed by Jakobsen (109) and Peter Sagan of TotalEnergies (80).
Jumbo Visma also leads the team race (39:09:52), leading Ineos Grenadiers by 29 seconds and Trek Segafredo by 0:45.
The fifth stage on Wednesday will only be 157 kilometers, but cobblestone streets along the way will provide the riders with a different challenge.
