Roglic wins first Tour test

RACE favourite Primoz Roglic edged Tuesday’s first summit finish of the Tour de France to win the fourth stage, but failed to drop any of his key rivals in the process, including overall leader Julian Alaphilippe and Australian Richie Porte.

On a perfect day for racing, Roglic (pictured) climbed to third overall behind Alaphilippe and Adam Yates as he edged home his Slovenian compatriot Tadej Pogacar on the rolling 160.5km run to the finish line situated 1850m above sea level.

Porte lies in 16th overall, 17 seconds behind Alaphilippe after finishing the stage in 14th.

The Alpine stage had been billed as the moment the true form of the various cont e n d e r s would be revealed and it was here in 1971 that great Spanish climber Luis Ocana b beat Eddy Merckx by nine minutes.

Nothing of that nature emerged on Tuesday, as the desperate jostling and posturing over the final kilometre of the 7.1km climb ascent to Orcieres-Merlette — at a 6.7 per cent average incline — culminated with 16 riders finishing on the same time, with the top three taking small time bonuses of 10, six and four seconds.

“Good,” Porte told SBS when asked how the stage had gone. “I think Bauke and I were still up with the main guys. It’s nice to get through and nice to finally get some good weather.

‘The last kilometre really hurt. It wasn’t a real climb to the finish there, it was four or five per cent sprint and it really hurt.”

The key weapon Roglic has in his armoury is his fabulous strength which gives him an irresistible late kick, and while he used this to win, defending champion Egan Bernal and fancied Frenchman Thibaut Pinot also held on.