Roglic wins first test as Alaphilippe retains yellow jersey

ORCIERES-MERLETTE: Race favourite Primoz Roglic (pic) edged the 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.

On a perfect day for racing, Roglic climbed to third overall, behind leaders Alaphilippe and Adam Yates as he edged home his Slovenian compatriot

Tadej Pogacar on the rolling 160.5km run to the finish line situated 1,850m above sea level.

The Alpine stage had been billed as the moment the true form of the various contenders would be revealed and it was here in 1971 that great Spanish climber Luis Ocana 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 percent 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.

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.

“It was quite a hard day actually and it was a nice win,” said former ski jumper Roglic, who has kept a low profile since a horrible crash saw him pull out of last month’s Criterium Dauphine before the final stage despite leading the race.

“I feel a little better every day, not quite the same as I was but I saw on stage two that I could still ride a bike,” added Roglic, who had to chase Alaphilippe after the home favourite’s stage-winning performance on Sunday.

“Deceuninck (Alaphilippe’s team) set a high pace, so I knew we were just racing for the win today and not the overall lead.

“We know what kind of champion Julian is, we saw last year he almost finished top. “Thibaut (Pinot) is also a threat.” Colombian Bernal was once again on his own in the final section of the climb but kept his powder dry until rising from his saddle once Roglic put the hammer down just 400m from the finish line, hanging comfortably with the select group of around 20 who kept up.

Alaphilippe said it had been a testing day.

“If we learned one thing, we learned that Jumbo are very difficult to keep up with,” said the Deceuninck leader, who will don the overall leader’s yellow jersey for a third straight day.

“It was a fast day with a double objective for me of keeping the yellow jersey and winning the stage. I’m really happy about keeping the yellow.”