Wout van Aert wins Stage 4 of Tour de France to consolidate overall lead

Jumbo-Visma’s Wout Van Aert took the honours in Stage 4 of the Tour de France to consolidate his overall lead on Tuesday.

The Belgian, who finished second in the opening three stages, kicked for home from 11 kilometres out to cross the finishing line eight seconds ahead of compatriot Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck and his Jumbo-Visma teammate Christophe Laporte.

Philipsen pipped Laporte in a bunch finish, followed by Alexander Kristoff of Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert, TotalEnergies’ Peter Sagan and Luca Mozzato of B&B Hotels-KTM in the top six.

“I didn't want to take the risk any more of finishing in a bunch finish,” Van Aert said of his bid to breakaway early.

“We were in a perfect position thanks to Nathan [Van Hooydonck] and Stevie [Kruijswijk]. Tiesj [Benoot] took over and in the wheel it was already super hard. The goal was to go full to the top and see what happened.

“By going full I also put the others in a good position so they didn't have to ride. Then it was just 10km of all out suffering.”

Adam Yates, of INEOS Grenadiers, was not surprised by the tactics: “They did the same thing at Paris-Nice and we had a suspicion they might do it, and they did the same thing, sprinting full gas from the bottom to the top,” said the British rider.

“I just about ran out of legs just over the top but there was only one other guy there that was better than me, so not much more I could do.