Tour de France stage 4 Live – Great Alpine battle challenges overall contenders

While we wait, some transfer gossip. According to Belgian newspaper The last news, Soren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Lennard Kamna (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), both former Tour de France stage winners and other achievements, are both moving to Lidl-Trek next year. Australian sprinter Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is also rumoured to be leaving, for either Astana Qazaqstan or Bahrain Victorious.

Less than 10 minutes before the start of the stage, the last one this year to start on Italian soil after the three-and-a-bit days that the Tour de France spent in the neighboring country. Once we reach the top of the Cat2 Col de Montgenevre, the race is back on home soil.

One sprinter who was unable to compete in the mass sprint to the finish in Turin was Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who crashed about two kilometers from the finish. The Belgian sprinter, multiple stage winner in the Tour, was able to continue in stage 4. James Moultrie has the full story here:

Jasper Philipsen to continue Tour de France after frustrating high-speed crash in first sprint stage

Richard Carapaz became the first Ecuadorian to lead the Tour de France on Monday, an achievement that is of great importance to everyone. But the biggest news of the day was the victory in the bunch sprint of Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), the first black African ever to win a stage in the Tour.
Here you can report on the impact of his victory by Dani Ostanek:
Another first – Biniam Girmay makes history again with Tour de France stage win in Turin

General classification after stage 3

1 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost 15:20:18

2 Tadej Pogačar (Slovakia) UAE Team Emirates

3 Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal-QuickStep

4 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a bicycle

5 Romain Bardet (Fra) DSM-Firmenich-PostNL 0:00:06

6 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain Winner 0:00:21

7 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis

8 Egan Bernal (Colonel) Ineos Grenadiers

9 Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

10 Aleksandr Vlasov (-) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

There is also quite a bit of climbing to be done in the 139 kilometres: 3,900 metres of elevation gain, the highest the peloton will see in the first week and up to and including stage 11 in the Massif Centrale.
Even the first sprint of the day, after 18.9 kilometers at Castel del Bosco, actually takes place on the first categorized climb of the stage. That is the 39.9 kilometer (!) cat.2 climb to Sestrieres, which peaks at km 50.4.

Hopefully it will be a bit warmer by then. Current reports suggest the temperature at the top of the Galibier will be 3 degrees Celsius this afternoon.

The key to all this is the Galibier, which at 2,642 metres above sea level is the second-highest climb of the 2024 Tour de France. The highest is the Col de la Bonette-Restefond, which peaks at 2,802 metres above sea level, but which the Tour peloton will not see until the end of week 3.

In other words, this is the first big mountain test of the 2024 Tour de France. Unprecedentedly early and difficult – even in 2023, when ASO opted to shake things up by riding almost straight into the Pyrenees, the first big mountain stage wasn’t until day 5, and it wasn’t as tough as this one.

On today’s menu:

Km 0: Start: Pinerolo (Italy)

Km 18.9 Sprint: Bosco Castle

Km 50.4: Climbing: Sestrieres (Cat 2, 39.9 km at 3.7%)

Km 71.1: Climbing: Col de Montgenevre (Cat. 2, 8.3 km at 5.9%)

Km 120.6: Climbing: Col du Galibier (HC, 23 km at 5.1%)

Km 139.5: End point: Valloire (France)

Today’s stage begins in just over an hour. The peloton will leave Pinerolo and the neutralized start at 13:05 CET, the race will pass kilometer zero at 13:15. After that, there’s a whole day left on the program…

Hello and welcome to Cycling news‘ live coverage of stage 4 of the 2024 Tour de France.