Italy's Elia Viviani of the Deceuninck team won the 4th stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday (9 July) in Nancy, where her team-mate Julian Alaphilippe kept the yellow jersey. Viviani, who had never won on the Tour, went up the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff. Australia's Caleb Ewan took third place ahead of Slovakia's Peter Sagan at the end of the 213.5-kilometer run.
Olympic champion track, in the omnium at the Rio Olympics, Viviani, 30, had already won in the Giro and Vuelta. But he could not succeed in the Tour during his first experience in 2014. He signed the first Italian success in a stage of the Tour since the victory of Fabio Aru in 2017, at La Planche des Belles Filles.
A trio highlighted
This stage of transition to connect Champagne to Lorraine, under a beautiful sun, highlighted three riders, the French Yoann Offredo, the Belgian Frederik Backaert and the Swiss Michael Schär, left after the start. The trio was controlled remotely by the peloton led by three teams (Lotto, Deceuninck, Jumbo) which left a gap of three and a half minutes. Schär was caught in the final climb, 16 km from the finish.
Lilian Calmejane tried his luck before the last 10 kilometers, without being able to avoid the return of the group to 6 km, prelude to a massive sprint.
Alaphilippe keeps the yellow jersey
For his first day in yellow, Alaphilippe had a rather quiet stage. He even offered to take the lead of the pack under the red flame of the last kilometer to contribute to the work of his training, before the Danish Michael Morkov and the Argentine Maximiliano Richeze launch Viviani.
Wednesday, the fifth stage is typical "middle mountain" between Saint-Dié-des-Vosges and Colmar. Four coasts, two in the second category, are on the 175.5 km program.
With AFP