Impressive Wout Van Aert soloes to stage four victory at Tour de France

Wout Van Aert used a stunning late attack to solo to victory on stage four of the Tour de France and extend his lead in the yellow jersey.

Van Aert’s Jumbo-Visma team made their move on the final short climb of the 171.5km stage from Dunkerque to Calais and he rode away on the descent, covering the final 10 kilometres alone as a fractured peloton trailed in his wake.

After finishing second in all three opening stages of the Grand Depart in Denmark, Van Aert gave himself time to celebrate on the line as he won by eight seconds, Jasper Philipsen also punching the air as he led the pack home seemingly unaware that Van Aert had been a few hundred metres up the road.

Van Aert had lamented it was “not funny anymore” after being beaten into second in back-to-back sprint finishes over the weekend, so he made sure there was no bunch gallop here.

“I didn’t want to take the risk anymore,” he said with a smile. “These stages most likely end with a sprint in a bigger group, so it’s one of the most difficult things to do to go it alone.

“I could only do it with the help of my team-mates. They did half the work and it was up to me to finish it off.”

Van Aert, whose long-term goal in this Tour is the points classification and the green jersey, extends his lead in yellow to 25 seconds from Yves Lampaert.

Defending champion Tadej Pogacar is third, now 32 seconds down, while the Ineos Grenadiers’ Adam Yates is eighth, 48 seconds back.

Jumbo-Visma’s attack on the Cote du Cap Blanc-Nez, the last of the six category four climbs on the first French stage of the race, seemed to catch unawares a number of the general classification contenders as small gaps appeared.

Only Van Aert’s team-mate Jonas Vingegaard and Yates were able to stay close to