September 1, 2020

Tour de France Stage 4 recap: A glimpse into the future

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The early mountain top finish didn't disappoint. Primoz Roglic and Jumbo-Visma established themselves as the riders to beat after Roglic hammered away from the yellow jersey to win Stage 4 in a sprint.

Julian Alaphilippe will remain in yellow, but he didn't have the legs to go with Roglic when the Slovenian went clear with a little more than 200 meters to go.

Jumbo-Visma controlled the race perfectly for the last 3.5 kilometers after do-everything Wout van Aert took over the front of a big peloton. Riders were steadily sloughed off as Van Aert ramped up the speed. When his turn was done at 1.5K to go, young American Sepp Kuss took over with Roglic stuck on his wheel, putting the Tour favorite in a comfortable position to attack.

Cofidis' Guillaume Martin lit the fuse for the finale. A daring acceleration with 570 meters to go forced the favorites to respond. Roglic accelerated to catch Martin at a little over 300 meters to go, and Alaphilippe was close behind. Then Roglic swung left around Martin and proceeded unbothered to the finish line. Alaphilippe tried to follow but may have gotten slightly pinned on the barrier by his fellow Frenchman. Still, Roglic appeared stronger regardless of path. Alaphilippe was also passed by a sprightly Tadej Pogacar, whose own impressive acceleration from the right side of the road gave Slovenia a 1-2 stage finish.

What this means for the yellow jersey

Alaphilippe has the yellow jersey, but it's hard to imagine that he'll hold it much longer. If he can't win punchy, heads-up scenarios against other general classification riders, it's even more unlikely he'll match them in the high mountains. (None of this is surprising, by the way; Alaphilippe has admitted that his form isn't where he wants it. I still love him to pieces.)

Roglic confirmed that he should be considered the clear yellow jersey favorite. He showed no sign of the crash that took him out of the Critérium du Dauphiné, and he is surrounded by peloton's best domestiques. Van Aert and Sepp Kuss deserve co-MVP honors on the day.

Roglic's biggest challengers remain roughly the same. Nairo Quintana and Thibaut Pinot didn't lose any time, and Quintana even edged out Alaphilippe at the line for fourth. Both riders prefer bigger climbs, anyway. Pogacar is just 21 years old, but he looked like a game fighter, and he has strong support, too.

Defending champion Egan Bernal didn't lose any time, either, but it's clear he won't have the help he had last year. Ineos teammates Michal Kwiatkowski and Jonathan Castroviejo briefly took charge of the peloton after Van Aert logged off, but they couldn't hold the pace for long, and eventually left Bernal to fight by himself in the final kilometer. Richard Carapaz, who was brought on as a second team leader, bled time and is now 21st on the general classification.

So that's the shape of things: Jumbo and Slovenia up, Ineos down, and everyone else still milling about. Form can change a lot over three weeks, so let's not pretend that anything is decided. But when the favorites quickly confirm why you thought they were the favorites, you can't help wondering whether the formalities have begun.

What else happened?

Well there was a pretty strong breakaway. Nils Politt and Krists Neilands of Israel Start-Up Nation, Mathieu Burgaudeau of Total Direct Energe), Alexis Vuillermoz (a.k.a., Pikachu) of AG2R La Mondiale, Tiesj Benoot of Sunweb and Quentin Pacher of B&B Hotels-Vital Concept attacked from the gun, and got the lead as high as 4:11 within the first 25 kilometers before being slowly reeled in over the next three and a half hours.

Sam Bennett was the first rider across the intermediate sprint point from the peloton, which put him in a virtual green jersey tie with Peter Sagan. But because Sagan is ahead on the general classification so he'll keep wearing green, and likely defend it until the Earth ends.

The peloton gave up its lazy chase with about 37 kilometers to go in the stage. On the slope up the first Category 3 climb, it suddenly seemed vitally important to GC teams to be at the head of the peloton, though Deceuninck-Quick Step quickly reestablished themselves in service of the yellow jersey.

As the peloton sped up, the breakaway splintered. Politts was caught with 21.5 kilometers to go. Sensing weakness in the ranks, Neilands went solo, and Pacher and Vuillermoz chased, refusing to give up the ghost.

They were no match for a Kasper Asgreen-led peloton in the foothills of the final climb up to Orcières-Merlette. It swallowed up Pacher and Vuillermoz with 10 kilometers left, and then Neilands at 7.2k, his prize as the stage's most combative rider secured.

From there, the GC teams jostled for the front of the stage, setting up some nervous positioning and a gradual culling of the herd as the gradient went up and the roads narrowed. Eventually, we got our first taste of what this year's select group can do, and a brief glimpse at one potential future.

Fun?!

Fun! Lots of it. Not all of it on the road.

This "Van Avermaet" x Muppets mashup has infected my brain.

Obligatory majestic Alaphilippe sports cover:

https://twitter.com/Laura_Meseguer/status/1300329262688370689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1300329262688370689%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvelovoices.com%2F2020%2F09%2F01%2Ftour-tweets-of-the-week-2020-mod-no-more-masque-dor-muppets-amour%2F

This photo isn't technically NSFW.

Wild mountain roosters.

This tight rope is entirely too long.

Tiesj Benoot was OK after this crash, but his bike very much was not.

My favorite camera shot of the day:

I want to swim in it.

The standings

STAGE 3

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) - 4hr 7min 47sec
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) - “
3. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) - “
4. Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) - “
5. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) - “
6. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) - “
7. Egan Bernal (Ineos) - “
8. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) - “
9. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) - “
10. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) - “

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — 18hr 7min 4sec
2. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) — +4sec
3. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) — +7sec
4. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) — +11sec
5. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) — +13sec
6. Egan Bernal (Ineos) — +17sec
7. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) — "
8. Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) — "
9. Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) — "
10. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) — "

GREEN JERSEY

1. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) — 83 points
2. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — "
3. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) — 80
4. Matteo Trentin (CCC) — 61
5. Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT) — 51

POLKA DOT JERSEY

1. Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) — 21 points
2. Michael Gogl (NTT) — 17
3. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) -- 8
4. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) — 8
5. Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) - 6

Stage 5 preview - 183km from Gap to Privas

Stage 5 will begin at 1:20 p.m. local, 7:20 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 7:30 a.m. on NBCSN. (Here’s NBC’s complete broadcast schedule).

Don’t get that channel? You’ll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.

If you can’t watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.

Sandwiched between two difficult, uphill finishes, Stage 5 should be a lackadaisical ride before an inevitable sprint, akin to Stage 3. If that results in another magical, impossible move like Caleb Ewan's (hey, why not watch it again?), then it'll be worth the effort. But it's also a good day to go for a long walk or sleep in with your morning. The Tour de France is an iron man commitment just to watch it, and you need to conserve your energy, too. Hell, you deserve it.

Riders will finish at a lower elevation than where they start as they weave through Provence towards the Pyrenees. It should feel good on the legs after four days of decidedly intense racing.

The last kilometer isn't stark flat, however, which expands the range of riders who can win. The more versatile riders will like it: Peter Sagan, Matteo Trentin and a rejuvenated Alexander Kristoff, for example.

Will we see Wout van Aert involved at the finish line finally? When he hasn't been riding in devout service of Jumbo-Visma's ambitions, he's had bad luck. His team should be just fine without his complete fealty Wednesday, however, giving him rein to hunt a stage win.

I'm happy to report that the weather should be clear and not too hot, if a bit windy.

Riders will pass within view of Mont Ventoux, but only wave hello. The finish region of Ardèche is known for a dish called a "caillette", which is a giant meatball of ground pork and pork liver, greens, pig's blood and herbs wrapped in "caul fat," which is "that lacy piece of fat that surrounds the stomach in pigs and other animals." It sounds like the perfect way to induce a nap after a long day in the saddle.