Kiwi keeps polka-dot jersey as Colombian claims stage win
Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria won for the second time in four stages at the Tour de France yesterday, while Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet kept the yellow leader’s jersey and Kiwi Dion Smith retained the King of the Mountains jersey.
Gaviria won stage four after edging world champion Peter Sagan in a sprint finish to the flat 195km leg from La Baule to Sarzeau that started and finished on the Atlantic coast. Although he missed out on the solitary King of the Mountains point on offer, Smith finished ninth and keeps the polka-dot jersey as he has a superior general classification position than the other two riders with points.
Gaviria, 29, had already won stage one, when he also edged Sagan, on his Tour debut for his Quick-Step team.
‘‘It was a very difficult sprint, but we knew how to pull it off,’’ Gaviria said. ‘‘I had to spend all my energy because it was a demanding finish. We are happy to have won it because the team deserved it.’’
Defending champion Chris Froome, of Sky, who remained 55sec back due to his fall in stage one, finished safely in the pack with leader Van Avermaet.
Quick-Step hunted down the breakaway to set up Gaviria, who powered his way down the final metre of the four-kilometre finish – the longest straightaway to conclude a leg on this Tour.
Gaviria surged across the line just inches ahead of the hardcharging Sagan, who was trying to add to his stage two win, and Andre Greipel in a close third.
‘‘He is faster than me,’’ Sagan said about Gaviria. ‘‘We will see. Maybe I will wait for some mistake. And maybe we will see the next days on the climbs. Every stage is different, every sprint is different.’’
Riders were enjoying a calm sunny afternoon in the cycling hotbed of northwest Brittany until a pileup near the front of the peloton with just over 5km left that sent several riders to the tarmac. Last year’s runner-up Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) and Katusha leader Ilnur Zakarin were slowed down by the accident.
Van Avermaet, the 2016 Olympic road race champion who is support rider for BMC leader Richie Porte, took the overall lead when his team won the stage three team time trial.
There were no changes among the other title hopefuls.
Tom Dumoulin was seventh (11 seconds behind), Uran was 10th (:35) and Porte 14th (:51). Movistar team-mates Alejandro Valverde and Mikel Landa were 15th and 16th (:53), narrowly ahead of Froome. The 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali was 19th (1:06), Romain Bardet 20th (1:15) and Nairo Quintana was 48th (2:08).
Next up is stage five, a hilly 204.5km leg from Lorient to Quimper.