Sam Bennett’s challenge for the green points classification jersey has begun to take shape at the Tour de France with the Irishman now level with Peter Sagan at the top of the leader board.
With a six-man breakaway clear for most of today’s stage
4 and the race featuring a summit finish, the fight for points towards the
green jersey came down to the mid-stage intermediate sprint.
At that point, in Veynes some 51km into the stage, the six-man breakaway was well clear but
that didn’t stop many of the riders in the bunch vying for the remaining
points.
Bennett sprinted
for the line, being led out by his team mate, and was first of the bunch across
it to take nine points.
Sagan was five places back and took four points meaning Bennett drew level with Sagan at the top of the classification, both on 83 points.
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However, because
Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) is better placed than Bennett overall the former world
champion will wear green tomorrow, though Bennett could take the jersey off him
during that stage.
Tomorrow’s stage takes the riders some 183km from Gap to Privas, with an intermediate sprint along the way for
Bennett to target more points.
While the stage is not flat, as it features two late cat
4 climbs and an undulating finale, it is the kind of terrain where Bennett
could survive at the front as the other sprinters flounder.
On today’s stage 4, the first summit finish into Orcières-Merlette, the early breakaway was swept up and the peloton trimmed back to a group of just 16 riders on the final climb.
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While Sam Bennett’s Deceuninck-QuickStep
team rode very strongly today in defence of Julian Alaphilippe’s yellow
jersey, the race leader had no answer when Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) attacked
the last few hundred metres in a bid to win the stage.
Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) rode strongly today, finishing just behind the lead group, some 28 seconds off the stage winner.
However, Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) had a more
challenging stage as he finished in 53rd just over three minutes
down after being distanced with 4km to go on the final climb.
Roglic was set up for his victory by Sepp Kuss, the young American who claimed the final stage of the Criterium du Dauphine last month.
And when Kuss pulled over having done his epic turn, Roglic took charge and won the sprint from the group to take the stage win after Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) had attacked first inside the final kilometre.
Another Slovenian, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), was
2nd followed by Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and
Alaphilippe.
While Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was in the lead group and finished on the same time as Roglic he looked very laboured, as his team mate Richard Carapaz lost 28 seconds.
In general Ineos Grenadiers continues to look like a shadow of its former self, though that could change as the race goes on, as Jumbo Visma appears to be holding its recent strong form.
The result today meant Alaphilippe retained his yellow jersey; now leading by four seconds from Adam Yates (Mitchelton Scott) with Roglic now in 3rd some seven seconds off the race lead.
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