We start the day in the Walloon city of Seraing, but after three and a half days in the Netherlands and Belgium, the Peloton does make its way to France today to finish in Cambrai. In all likelyhood, this will be the second chance for the sprinters to make their mark on the race. Ahlstrand has beaten Van Stayen two days ago and after a disappointment on the Mur de Huy yesterday, I’m sure the Belgian is out for revenge.
The Mountain Classification is also wide open. There are five points to be collected on today’s lone KoM sprint and, excluding the GC riders, four other riders are within 4 points of Revard’s lead. The American currently has 7 points, so only one of those could take the jersey away from him. We’ll talk more about that should one or more of them make the break of the day.
Curiously, for around 8 kilometers, no one attacks at all. But finally, Martins Sandoval makes his way to the front and goes for it. Dlamini, who already had an unsuccessful attempt yesterday, and Rajapakshage want in on the move.
A few kilometers later, former yellow jersey Vlatos, Yzeiraj - who wore the mountain jersey last year for two days early on - and Stage 2 escapee Bolor-Erdene attack as well. None of them, or any of the first three attackers, have any mountain points.
The six come together after a while and settle into a rhythm, as does the peloton, where Revard can sit back and relax, knowing his polkadots jersey is safe for at least another day.
The group approaches the mountain sprint at the Citadelle de Namur with almost five and a half minutes on the peloton, the biggest gap we’ve seen so far in this race. Neither of them is a particularly good rider uphill, so Yzeiraj is the one who initiates the sprint almost by happenstance, being the one at the front of the group near the 1km marker.
He almost holds on, but at the last moment, Dlamini and Martins Sandoval go past him to collect 5 and 3 points each. Maybe that’s some ground work for another attack tomorrow, when there are 2 KoM sprints available. Bolor-Erdene and Vlatos have a little bit of trouble keeping up, but everything’s back together quickly on the following downhill.
In the peloton, we once again see EA Vesuvio, Volvo and Evonik - ELKO doing the work, but they’re still very calm and the gap stays above 4 minutes.
It’s probably a sensible decision for the breakaway not to expend any unnecessary energy on the intermediate sprint. Rajapakshage takes the 10 points and 6 bonus seconds, but neither matter all that much. The Rakuten rider is the best-placed of the group in the GC at + 4’15 (well, + 4’09 now), so he was in the virtual GC lead for a while, but by now the gap is down to around 3’20. 100 kilometers to go.
Very little happened over the next few dozen kilometers. With just over 20 kilometers to go, the peloton first comes within a minute of the breakaway, which triggers the usual attacks. Vlatos goes first, the top time trialist certainly has a big motor to potentially pull something off here.
But he lacks the acceleration to ever really get away, so his attack is short-lived. For a bit, Yzeiraj and Martins Sandoval then form the head of the race.
EA Vesuvio had left much of the work to Evonik and Volvo through the latter half of the stage, but now they are the ones leading the final charge to bring the breakaway back. However, those are no domestiques: Reimer, with Van der Lijke in second position, is at the very front of the peloton already. Still 7 kilometers left and the breakaway has around 25 seconds.
Behind those two, Saber and Vanderbiest have settled in. Van Stayen follows, Dzamastagic is still a few positions further behind. Ahlstrand then follows Halvorsen.
On the left, Goldstein leads out Van Poppel, followed by Enger and Nizzolo. Jakobsen and Soupe fight to latch on at the bottom of the screen. Like two days ago, neither Holloway nor Samolenkov show up for now.
This is really a pathetic display from the sprinter teams. Reimer quickly ran out of energy, so Goldstein took over but could only make modest headway. Now Halvorsen tries to close the gap. Behind him, everyone is just randomly bunched together, although Van Stayen has at least found Dzamastagic now. We’re already inside the final 5 kilometers.
Halvorsen couldn’t do it either, but finally, Dzamastagic drags his leader past the breakaway. There’s really only that one train left, if you can even call it that. Nizzolo, Jakobsen and Saber are closest to Van Stayen, Ahlstrand has fallen way behind, as has Van der Lijke. But there’s still 2,5 kilometers to go, so maybe they have enough road left to get back to the front.
Or maybe not: Ahlstrand completely missed the jump and 10 riders create a significant gap to the rest of the pack! In addition to those already named above, it’s Van Poppel, Enger, Vanderbiest, Soupe and Santos. Van der Lijke missed the cut as well.
Van Stayen has an incredible opportunity to gain significant points on his main rival, but he has to go into the wind very early, after already closing a small gap to his lead-out earlier. However, there’s a bit of tailwind and the home stretch goes downhill just ever so slightly, which might help him.
Plus, those behind him have a ways to go as well. Saber and Van Poppel fan out and Nizzolo leaves the slipstream as well. This could be a golden opportunity for the Italian to step into his teammate Stauff’s foot steps as a surprise stage winner.
Van Stayen is going backwards now, this is not looking good for him. Nizzolo, Saber and Jakobsen are in the front row now, either of the latter two has a chance to take green with a stage win after decent results on Stage 2!
Nizzolo is struggling to keep his pace and Saber moves into the lead. Enger is very fast right now on the right side of the road, as is Soupe on the left, but he’s likely too far back at this point.
Saber has a gap on the rest, surely that has to be enough? The fight for the places behind him is very close, though!
The Morrocan champ raises his hands in celebration: Lahcen Saber wins Stage 4 of the Tour de France!
Enger fends off the late charge from Soupe, but great results for both of them, a very unexpected stage podium. Jakobsen with a very solid 4th place, Nizzolo gives away a better result with his timing, but in isolation a 5th place is a really good result for him as well.
Vanderbiest finishes 6th, Van Stayen at least collects a few more points in 7th, Van Poppel went a little early as well after all and ends up 8th.
Van der Lijke pulls off a very, very long sprint to somehow make it into the Top 10, as does Dzamastagic on the right side of the road, who denies Ahlstrand one more point. Terrible results for all three teams, though.
Santos was apparently in over his head in the final sprint, he falls behind even yellow jersey Herklotz.
The jury decides to actually award time gaps after the big gaps in the sprint. The trio around Ahlstrand is timed 24 seconds behind the leaders, the peloton gets 39 seconds. A bit silly, if you ask me, but also likely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, except for maybe the team classification, where a few teams gain some seconds, but none of them are particularly likely to compete there anyway.
The theme of this stage was the breakdown of the major sprinter teams. Whether they underestimated the breakaway or had spent too many ressources in the chase, they simply lost complete control in the sprint. But that should not take anything away from Saber’s performance, who is a worthy winner and is rewarded with the green jersey. Guys like Soupe, Jakobsen and Nizzolo took the opportunity in stride to score some very nice results.
Luckily for the top favorites and their teams, tomorrow is already the next opportunity to redeem themselves. They better take it, or the rides back to the hotels might become a little tense.
Tour de France 
