This time, the commissioners found nothing wrong with it. The Italian Elia Viviani, who was disqualified after her victory on the 3rd stage of the last Tour of Italy to have embarrassed an opponent, won Tuesday in Nancy the 4th stage of the Tour de France, between Reims and Nancy. This is the first success on the Great Loop for the sprinter of the Deceuninck-Quick Step, teammate of Julian Alaphilippe, and who participates in the event for the second time only, after 2014, where he had not shone ( 17th place at best). "I missed that victory on the Tour de France," agreed Viviani after the finish. "From now on, I won a stage on the Giro, Vuelta and Tour, which was my goal of the season."
Gold medalist on the track at the Rio Olympics
Before raising his first bouquet on the Tour, Viviani has done it many times elsewhere (74 successes in round!), Including at the Olympic Games, where he won the gold medal of the omnium, disappointed unknown track rider in Rio in 2016. The Italian rider, who turned 30 last February, won for the first time on a grand Tour at home in Italy in 2015, before signing in 2018 four other successes with the cyclamen jersey of the points classification. Last year, he also shone on the Tour of Spain, with three more stage victories. He had great ambitions for the year 2019, but he had trouble digesting his downgrade on the 3rd stage of the Giro, signing three places of 2nd after that.
He got back on track at the Tour de Suisse, with two stage victories, which allowed him to arrive on the Tour with full confidence. "I wanted to win the first stage, but it was not so easy to come back after so many years of absence." In Brussels, Viviani had to settle for the 9th place of a sprint won by Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Vista).
The green jersey as a goal?
And now, what goals for Viviani on this Tour? The Green Jersey of the points classification, currently led by Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe)? "For this, we must win other stages," said the Italian, who showed his desire on Tuesday by setting the first time the peloton in the intermediate sprint of Lérouville, 66.5 km from the finish. "If I continue to win the intermediate sprints, I can think about it, but first and foremost, we have to win stages." Julian (Alaphilippe) 's victory yesterday (Monday) really changed the Tour for us.
The yellow jersey in person also brought his ecot to the victory of the day, taking his teammate under the red flame, before the Danish Michael Morkov and the Argentine Maximiliano Richeze do not finish the job by launching Viviani. "It's not every day that the yellow jersey takes you to victory," agreed the Italian on arrival. "He did it, we got along very well from the start, we're a group of friends on the team and that's very important." Here are the other teams of the Tour de France warned.