Van Aert extends overall lead in Tour de France with stage 4 win | Sports

The Belgian rider held the leader’s yellow jersey for the Jumbo–Visma staff following taking it for the first time on Saturday. He also extended his lead in the inexperienced jersey contest for greatest sprinter.

Van Aert shook up the peloton when he surged ahead up the very last of the five climbs — a 900-meter ascent up Cote du Cap Blanc-Nez at a gradient of 7.5 % — about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the stop.

He claimed he felt an early assault was the best way to avoid a mass dash at the line.

“I didn’t want to take the danger of getting rid of any longer. It was really clear that we have been trying some thing with the staff,” he said. “I went complete gas to see what would happen. I went all out.”

The 27-calendar year-aged Van Aert is thought of one of the finest multi-experienced riders in the world and is a former a few-time cyclo-cross earth champion and a just one-day classics professional.

The Jumbo-Visma rider flapped his arms like a bird’s wings as he sat up on his bike. He crossed the line 8 seconds clear of countryman Jasper Philipsen of the Alpecin–Fenix team, with Jumbo-Visma teammate Christophe Laporte having third spot in a dash complete.

“This jersey offers wings. It was surely a rough climb but this stage was pretty possible heading to stop up in bunch dash,” Van Aert claimed. “It was complicated to complete by itself, but thanks to the get the job done of my teammates, I did it. It was up to me to end it off.”

Van Aert picked up a 10-second time reward and is now 25 seconds in advance of Yves Lampaert in the all round standings and 32 seconds very clear of two-time defending champion Tadej Pogacar.

Pogacar’s rival Primoz Roglic, the 2020 Tour runner-up and Van Aert’s teammate, stayed seventh total and remained 9 seconds driving Pogacar, with both of those finishing in the key pack.

Immediately after a journey day, riders tackled a sunny 171.5-kilometer (106.3-mile) route from the coastal city of Dunkirk to Calais, wherever riders could see the English coastline when they arrived into the a great deal-applied port place. Van Aert completed it in 4 hours, 1 moment, 36 seconds.

Danish rider Magnus Cort, who thrilled crowds with his breakaway rides for the duration of 3 rigorous times in Denmark, was yet again in the early breakaway — this time alongside Anthony Perez.

Perez pulled ahead some 45 kilometers (28 miles) out and Cort was caught by the peloton soon just after. Cort picked up more details in the polka-dot jersey bid but considerably a lot more challenging climbs in the Alps and Pyrenees are nevertheless to occur.

Wednesday’s fifth stage is a flat stage for sprinters about 157 kilometers (97 miles) beginning at Lille Metropole and heading about some of the feared cobblestones that element on the Paris-Roubaix a person-day vintage.

The race ends on July 24 in Paris.