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Primož Roglič wins Tour de France’s first GC showdown

Alaphilippe keeps yellow jersey after uphill sprint between 16 favourites

Photo by: Sirotti
September 1, 2020
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Primož Roglič put down the foundations for his yellow jersey bid by winning the first GC showdown of the 2020 Tour de France and his third career Tour stage. Only bonus seconds separated 16 Tour favourites in a uphill bunch sprint. Julian Alaphilippe retained his yellow jersey, four seconds over Adam Yates and seven seconds ahead of Roglič, who has a 10-second gap over champion Egan Bernal.

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The Course

The Tour headed north and then east into the Hautes-Alpes, where the riders had 160.5-km to race. Three Cat. 3 climbs and one Cat. 4 led to the day’s climax on Orcières-Merlette, 7.1 km of 6.7 percent, an ascent back in the French Grand Tour after 31 years. It was the earliest road race Cat. 1 summit finish in Tour history.



Orcières-Merlett in the 1971 Tour

Orcières is famous in Tour lore as the place where Eddy Merckx, on July 8, 1971, suffered one of the worst days of his career, courtesy of Spain’s Luis Ocaña. Champion two years running and in his first season with Molteni, Merckx had already shown fragility the day before on the stage to Grenoble, but on July 8 Ocaña hammered him by 8:42, the Bic rider soloing to victory and then slipping on yellow with an 8:43 gap over his closest rival Joop Zoetemelk and a lead of 9:46 over the Belgian. However, three days later, while still holding a 7:23 gap over second place Merckx, Ocaña crashed while trying to avoid a prone Merckx before Zoetemelk smashed into the Spaniard as he struggled to get in his clipless pedals. The Spaniard’s Tour was over. The next day the Cannibal refused to wear yellow jersey, a garment he would don all the way to Paris. Ocaña would win the Tour in 1973 when Merckx was absent, the Belgian having taken that year’s Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia double.

A six-pack of fugitives dashed away early. Just before the first Cat. 3, Sam Bennett drew level with Peter Sagan in the green points jersey competition, the Slovak wearing the kit on the day. Escapee Quentin Pacher (France/B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) kept sopping up maximum KOM points along the route.

The peloton was a bit nervous and started winding things up a long way from the foot of Orcières-Merlett.

Orcières-Merlett

Deceuninck-Quick Step and Jumbo-Visma drove the peloton, catching the final breakaway holdout with 7-km to go.

The fireworks didn’t begin until the bunch reached the switchbacks. Pierre Rolland rolled back the years with the first stiff surge but was pulled back. Roglič’s teammate Wout Van Aert whipped up the pace to 27-29 km/h, making it too hard to attack.

Another Roglič teammate, Sepp Kuss, attacked at 1.5-km to go, with Guillaume Martin, Roglič, Egan Bernal, Tadej Pogačar, Mikel Landa, Alejandro Valverde and Alaphilippe grabbing the American’s wheel.

An attack by Martin looked to put Bernal in momentary trouble. Roglič and Pogačar were able to come around Martin and Roglič prevailed.

Wednesday has the potential for more action, as the final 1.2 km climbs 3.4 percent.

2020 Tour de France Stage 4
1) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) 4:07:47
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) s.t.
3) Guillaume Martin (France/Cofidis) s.t.
82) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana) +9:13

2020 Tour de France GC
1) Julian Alaphilippe (France/Deceuninck-Quick Step)
2) Adam Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) +0:04
3) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +0:07
91) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana) +31:06