Domestique Debrief: GC reshuffle on stage 4 of the Tour de France

Of course, the day’s top headline was Pogačar’s 100th career victory – a stunning statistic made all the more impressive by his relative youth. Jonas Vingegaard was temporarily distanced when the Slovenian launched his explosive attack on the final climb of the day, but made it back to his rival to set up another sprint finish, whilst recording his best one-minute power ever, apparently. Touché. 

Beyond the head-to-head, it was a telling day for the teams of the two rivals. Both played their role in setting up the finale, with Tim Wellens prominent in the closing stages, before Victor Campenaerts’ blistering pace on the flat shredded the bunch. Later, João Almeida worked his way from further back in the group to lead Pogačar out on the climb. Both Jorgenson and Almeida were able to stay with the lead group and serve as foils for their leaders in the final five kilometres, confirming, at least for now, that both teams are on point, and that it's impossible to pick between them ahead of the later mountain stages.

After two days hanging out the back of the peloton and losing over 14 minutes on GC, the resurgence of Bahrain Victorious’ Lenny Martinez was a joy to behold on yesterday’s stage. The first to break away from the bunch the moment the flag dropped, Martinez was also the last rider to be brought back with 20km to go, after a valiant fight to collect KOM points in what is undoubtedly his mission for the Tour.

Whether he was feeling under the weather, throwing others off the scent, or simply dropping time on purpose, Martinez banished any doubts about his form, and while he only took two KOM points, he's opened his account, with all of the biggest climbs still ahead. Even after his jaunt out front was done he put in a short shift for his GC leader Santiago Buitrago who was having his own struggles, before clocking out for the day, and he later went on to collect the combativity prize – well deserved, and hopefully the beginning of a new Tour de France for the young Frenchman.

Oscar Onley is coming on in leaps and bounds this season. After proving he had what it took to mix it with the big guns at the Tour de Suisse, he went one better on stage 4, taking on the top riders in the world, forming part of a supergroup that included Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Vingegaard, amongst others. 

In fact, only those three could beat Onley on the line – the Scot finished fourth, ahead of Remco Evenepoel, and arguably on a stage that doesn’t particularly suit his characteristics. Picnic-PostNL have placed great belief in the 22-year-old, who appears to be equal to the expectations being placed upon his young shoulders, and taking the pressure in his stride. His brilliant performance moves him up to seventh on GC, and it seems the sky is the limit for him here at this Tour de France.

Undeterred by the half a minute deficit he incurred on stage 1, or the late crash that hampered him on stage 3, Remco Evenepoel played a key role in the finale yesterday, instigating some attacks and running out of steam only on the final ramp up to the finish line. He lost three seconds but gained time on key rivals, moving up 12 places to 9th on GC with his favoured discipline ahead of him. He’s 58 seconds adrift of Pogačar, so it seems a bit fanciful to suggest he may move into yellow after today's time trial, but it’s fair to say he will likely close the gap and bring himself right back into the GC battle.

The only negative during the day for Evenepoel was a hard crash for one of his key mountain domestiques, Valentin Paret-Peintre. The Frenchman looked in some distress after the crash, and though he was eventually able to remount his bike and finish the stage, it’s possible we may not see him start today, and even if he’s able to continue, he may not have the form Remco would like him to have.

While the third favourite for the race in Evenepoel fared well on the stage, the other pre-race favourite to round out the podium, Primož Roglič, continued to struggle to keep pace with the top riders at the race, losing 32 seconds on Pogačar and Vingegaard yesterday. A minor consolation, Roglič moved up to 13th place on GC as the majority of the bunch fell out of contention on the series of climbs that were backloaded at the end of the profile. 

While his team later confirmed that the issue was mechanical rather than physical, a second day of time losses puts Roglič 1:27 down on the race lead already, and reading between the lines, it could be suggested that the fight has gone out of the Slovenian. He remarked after his stage 1 deficit, ‘I don’t care’, and has previously said that winning the Tour isn’t that important to him in the grand scheme of things. He doesn’t have anything to prove, yet that doesn’t bode well for Red Bull, whose other GC option, Florian Lipowitz, also struggled on yesterday’s stage, losing 54 seconds and dropping to 20th on GC. The exertions of the Giro may prove too much for both Red Bull’s leaders, and it’s possible they may switch to a stage hunting strategy as the race unfolds – I’d love to be proved wrong and see Roglič rally, but the outlook is starting to look somewhat bleak.