Key events
That was a classic sprint stage all round, really. The wind did cause a split in the bunch at one point, but they managed to get back in touch with the peloton, and that ensured it settled down again. It took a while for the breakaway to form but once we had three – and pretty quickly two – riders up the road, the sprinters teams were always going to lock it down before the end.
Top 10 GC after stage four
1) Vos (Team Visma-Lease A Bike) 11hr 13min 11sec
2) Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) +12sec
3) Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) +12sec
4) Ferrand Prevot (Team Visma-Lease A Bike) +18sec
5) Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon/Sram Zondacrypto) +22sec
6) Vollering (FDJ-Suez) +25sec
7) Van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) +27sec
8) Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) +27sec
9) Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) +31sec
10) Dygert (Canyon/Sram Zondacrypto) +31sec
Wiebes is up to second in GC as a result of that win.
“So far, it’s really rewarding to do this for Lorena,” says Anna van der Breggen, who produced a massive late turn in SD Worx-Protime’s textbook lead-out. “If it’s your moment, you need to do it. That pressure is kind of nice.
“You need to go fast. It’s difficult to know exactly when you go in front, when is the moment … when she [Wiebes] is there in the end, you know she will find a gap. Happy that we have Lorena, she is an amazing rider and I feel honoured to work for her.
“It’s hard [being back in the peloton], but at the same time, when you have a result like this it’s so rewarding. I like it, and sometimes I hate it.”
Top 10 on stage four (all same time)
1) Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) 2hr 54min 11sec
2) Vos (Team Visma-Lease A Bike)
3) Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ)
4) Jansen (Volkerwessels)
5) Dygert (Canyon/Sram Zondacrypto)
6) Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal)
7) Barbieri (Picnic-PostNL)
8) Zanetti (UnoX-Mobility)
9) Gonzalez Blanco (St Michel Preference Home-Auber93)
10) Van Dam (Ceratzit Pro Cycling)
Lorena Wiebes wins stage four
The race leader Vos is second behind the SD Worx-Protime rider, who wins a second consecutive stage. That was a textbook leadout and sprint. Vos tried to stay with Wiebes, but her rival had too much pace and power. Plenty of riders will be happy just to stay upright through a very technical final. Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) is third.
300km to go: Wiebes attacks on the right!
500m to go: Canyon-SRAM moving up …
1km to go: Van der Breggen still riding on the front, a mammoth effort.
2km to go: Wiebes is fourth wheel on the front of the peloton. Poised to strike. Vos is third wheel, mind you, and may fancy an attack on the climb …
2.5km to go: Anna van der Breggen is riding on the front for SD-Worx, working for Wiebes.
3km to go: Lorena Wiebes is well positioned towards the front. The peloton snakes around a big left-hander.
4km to go: The escapees are finally caught. Now the sprinters’ teams can take over.
5km to go: It’s 7sec for Magalhães and Koch. They haven’t given up, but they will be caught in the next kilometre or so, I think.
6km to go: Kristen Faulken (EF-Education-Oatly) has crashed on her own, it looks like she caught the kerb on the left-hand side of the road at the back of the bunch.
7.5km to go: Magalhães of Movistar is emptying the tank. She stands up and stamps on her pedals, leading Koch along an uphill drag. It’s a 13sec gap and the peloton has its prey easily in sight on a straight stretch of road.
8km to go: Back down the road, near the solitary climb, there was a bit of moisture on the road but it looks fully dry now. That’s a blessing for this high-speed, highly technical finish.
9.5km to go: The doomed escapees are not giving up. They have 14sec now.
10km to go: It’s 23sec for the breakaway and the peloton is now moving at full effort and full speed.
11km to go: The SD Worx-ProTime riders, as you’d expect, are visible at the front of the bunch, working for Wiebes.
12km to go: The gap holds at around 40sec for these brave riders up front.
14km to go: Magalhães grimaces with effort as she does another turn on the front.
As Vos mentioned earlier, there is an uncategorised climb before the finish line, which may make things a bit more interesting in a few minutes. Also it’s a highly technical run-in to the finish line with plenty of roundabouts.
15km to go: Oh look, it’s the Eglise de Saint Georges les Baillargeaux. I’ll have to look up the history later.
It’s 41sec for the break.
16km to go: As always, the breakaway riders’ efforts will not be in vain, if and when they are caught. A lovely bit of TV time for the sponsors. And as pointed out in coverage, too, it’s always good for riders to showcase themselves at the biggest bike race on the planet.
17km to go: Vos is front and centre in the chasing peloton. Now the chase is really on, too, and the gap has fallen to 48sec.
18km to go: Lots of fans are roadside to applaud the breakaway riders. Back down the road, the work seems to be divided up among different teams, but there doesn’t appear to be a huge amount of organisation in the chase.
20km to go: Still a minute for the break. There’s a crash back in the bunch. Nienke Vinke (Picnic PostNL) is one of the riders down. But no major harm done, it would seem, unless you count her white-jersey hopes. (Vinke is second behind British rider Imogen Wolff (Visma-Lease A Bike) in the best young rider standings.
22km to go: Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez), in polkadots, is visible at the front of the peloton. Now Magalhães takes her turn at the front of the two-rider escape group, but Koch is soon back in control. She is doing the lion’s share of the work.
24km to go: The peloton heads over a bridge, across the A10 (autoroute Aquitane). Koch’s irrepressible ride at the front sees her stretch the gap to 1min 07sec. Fenix-Deceuninck are massed at the front of the bunch.
25km to go: A minute for the break. Koch rides on strongly at the front.
27km to go: A couple of riders are dropped off the back of the bunch as the pace picks up. Do the two breakaway riders have any hope of staying away and fighting for the win? I suppose there is a chance, but it’s a very small one with only two riders up front, who’ve already done a lot of work.
29km to go: Magalhães takes two KOM points, Koch takes one atop the Côte de Marigny.
Koch waves to the fans at roadside, it looks like maybe it was someone she knows in the crowd.
The peloton follows behind, 55sec down on the break.
30km to go: Now 900m of climbing for the breakaway riders. Magalhães gets out of the saddle and leads her breakaway companion up the climb. As the riders approach the woods at the top of the Côte de Marigny, there are lots of campervans and cars at the side of the road. Plenty of fans, too.
31km to go: The peloton snakes through a chicane, right to left, and the pace seems to be picking up a bit as the kilometres tick by. Still it’s 1min 10 sec for the break.
31.5km to go: The breakaway riders are nearing the solitary categorised climb of the day.
33km to go: Thoughts on the race before the final? Mail me.
34km to go: Koch, at the front of the race, flicks an elbow asking for Magalhães to come through. But the Movistar rider stays put. She is probably suffering with the pace set by her breakaway companion.
35km to go: Demi Vollering, hopefully, will be shaping up relatively well after yesterday’s crash. It’s possible that tomorrow will be the worst day in terms of dealing with the pain from her injuries. But it’s good that she’s still in the mix.
36km to go: It’s a minute for the break. A mixture of teams are fighting for space on the road at the front of the chasing peloton.
39km to go: “It’ll be interesting to see if Lara Gillespie can mix it with the big hitters of Tour sprinting today,” emails Matthew. “UAE have been sitting on or near the front for the last 40km or so and she finished strongly in the second group yesterday which would suggest she feels good at the moment.”
40km to go: It’s 1min 05sec for the break.
There’s a category-four climb coming up, the Côte de Marigny, and Magalhães will presumably be permitted to take the honours by her breakaway companion.
42km to go: Wiebes, in green, wins the sprint behind but it’s not much of a contest. Vos follows right on her wheel and grabs 15pts.
44km to go: Koch rolls through the sprint, clearly by prior agreement, and takes 25pts. Now here comes the main bunch.
45km to go: Just a kilometre to go to the intermediate sprint for the leaders.
46km to go: With two riders in front, there will be 17pts available in the sprint behind, from the main peloton, at the intermediate. Koch and Magalhães ride on up front. I presume Koch will race for full points at the sprint point, which is a little over 2km away.
50km to go: Koch and Magalhães are churning out some serious power up front. Their lead grows to 1min 44sec. The race is rolling through picturesque open farmland near Chinon, still in the Loire Valley.
53km to go: It’s 1min 37sec for the two-rider breakaway. And about 8km until the intermediate sprint at Soudun.
57km to go: In the virtual GC, Koch is now just a minute behind Vos. Mind you the GC is so congested she would only be 25th, according to my calculations.
Nice to see a Tour de France with a genuine GC battle, anyway.
59km to go: Just 15km to race until the intermediate sprint. Rijnbeek, meanwhile, has been dropped by Koch and Magalhães, who are 1min 08sec in front of the bunch.
60km to go: Overall the race has settled down with the break up the road and the average speed has fallen to 45.3km/h.
61km to go: The previous excitement in the peloton, when a few GC riders were dropped for a while, has seen the gap to the break fall to 39sec.
63km to go: The town of Richelieu, of course, was made famous by Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642). Have we got anything appropriate in the Guardian online archive? Well, sort of:
64km to go: Happily for those 26 riders, they have managed to get back together with the peloton.
65km to go: There are 26 riders off the back. Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) is the best placed on GC, 33sec down.
