Ewan back on Tour podium
ELIA Viviani (DeceuninckQuickStep) finally won his first Tour de France stage with a devastating sprint into Nancy to take Stage 4.
The brilliant Italian has countless wins around the world but now his record looks more complete.
Viviani’s only other appearance at Le Tour was in 2014 and he was unsuccessful that year. But here, with a superfast finish into Nancy, Viviani’s team delivered him to the front perfectly.
He edged out powerful Norwegian Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) and our Aussie pocket rocket Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), with Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) very close in fourth place.
Tantalisingly close again for Ewan and that’s twice on the podium in the first five days.
“I’ve been pretty patient, I think, in my career to get here so I can wait a few more stages,” a tired but smiling Ewan said.
“Although we’ve got third twice, I feel we’re getting closer and we’re still working it out together as a team
“I mean, I’m disappointed but that’s the way racing goes. There’s been plenty of times where I’ve missed out in the first few stages and I’ve come back so there’s nothing we can do now, it’s done.
“We can learn from it and try to use that knowledge to win the next few stages.
“I was a little bit boxed in again today, but to be honest even if I could get out I just didn’t have the legs because we came from quite far back.
“Jasper ended up putting me in a really good position, but we had to use so much energy just to get there.
“It was almost like a full sprint just to get to his (Viviani’s) wheel and then I got a few seconds of rest and then we had to start sprinting again.
“I always get to the point there where I have to decide to go by myself or follow the team and I probably made the mistake of not following them there.
“But like I said, we were too far back and for me to win today.
“I needed to have a super good run through the bunch and an easy as possible run if I was to win because if we came from 20 wheels back in the wind then it’s too much energy spent.”