A punchy finish in Normandie and a solid display from the 25-year-old.
Remco Evenepoel did a great effort in the closing part of Tuesday’s nervous stage in Normandie, shutting some dangerous moves and staying with the small group that fought for victory in Rouen, which helped him gain a spectacular twelve places in the general classification ahead of the race’s first individual time trial.
Amiens – home of a stunning Gothic cathedral built two centuries before the Fall of Constantinople, around the time that Marco Polo travelled through Asia along the Silk Road – hosted the start of stage four, which took the peloton to Rouen, the city of Jacques Anquetil. Born in a suburb of Rouen, the Frenchman had a career that stretched over 16 years and became a legend of the sport, having built an impressive palmares that featured a total of eight Grand Tours, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Hour Record.
The capital of Normandie, Rouen returned at Le Tour for the first time since 2012, with a much different finale than the previous one, when the sprinters took center stage. Now, back-to-back short and steep hills made for an explosive last 20 kilometers, gradually whittling down the peloton and leaving only some 20-odd riders at the front. The race exploded on the 14% gradients of the final classified climbs, where two riders took off; behind, Remco Evenepoel was the one who took an incredibly long pull in order to make up ground and join them, which he did on the descent.
Others soon followed, making it a ten-man group for the uphill battle in Rouen. Soudal Quick-Step’s leader took seventh on the line – his first top ten of this edition – as Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) sprinted to victory. Thanks to this strong result, the Belgian is ninth overall after four days at Le Tour, less than a minute from the yellow jersey wearer.
“The final 20 kilometers were incredibly hectic, but we were always at the front, and I must thank Max Schachmann for that, because he did a great job keeping me there. The whole team was solid today and we can be content with the way things played out. Now it’s time to recover and see what I can do in the time trial”, Evenepoel said at the finish.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
