Stage 4: Seraing > Cambrai, 223.5km
The cobbles. It was one of the stages we'd all been waiting for and what a stage it was. It didn't have the impact on the race favourites that we thought it might (though try telling that to Thibault Pinot), but the action was still frantic and what a better way to round up an incredible first four days of diverse yet grueling racing than to see Tony Martin get the stage win and his first Yellow jersey at last.
About the only constant over those first four stages in which we seen a time-trial, a day of cross winds and rain, a finish on the Mur de Huy and a day on the cobbles, was Tony Martin sitting second overall while three different riders took a turn in Yellow ahead of him.
On Saturday he sat 5 seconds behind Rohan Dennis (now 89th at 14'14"); on Sunday he was 3 seconds behind Fabian Cancellara (now abandoned), who took advantage of a time-bonus on the line; and by Monday he was 1 second behind Chris Froome (now 12 seconds behind him) who also took a second place time-bonus on the stage to hop into the race lead.
Fans everywhere felt for Martin, but they say the Yellow jersey doesn't come easy and good things come to those who wait, work hard, persevere...and win.
He made his big move a handful of kilometres from the finish, with the cobbles safely behind, coming out of a depleted peloton of 33 riders - but which contained all the favourites to win this Tour, though none of whom had any interest in pegging Martin back, unlike the sprinters of John Degenklob and Peter Sagan, who failed to mark his move and who were resigned to fighting for second in the group sprint.
Martin went harder than he's ever went before. You could say he rode his bike like he had stolen it...which, funnily, he kind of did. Earlier in the stage Martin had run into mechanical trouble but a quick bike swap with team-mate Matteo Trentin soon put him back in the lead pack and kept his hopes alive. It was a move in stark contrast to that of Thibault Pinot who declined a team-mates bike under a similar circumstance due to a size difference, a mistake that brought out the frustration in him and that cost him 3'23" by the line leaving his general classification bid in tatters.
Martin went harder than he's ever went before. You could say he rode his bike like he had stolen it...which, funnily, he kind of did. Earlier in the stage Martin had run into mechanical trouble but a quick bike swap with team-mate Matteo Trentin soon put him back in the lead pack and kept his hopes alive. It was a move in stark contrast to that of Thibault Pinot who declined a team-mates bike under a similar circumstance due to a size difference, a mistake that brought out the frustration in him and that cost him 3'23" by the line leaving his general classification bid in tatters.
Last year it was the cobbled stage that Nibali used to build the foundations of his Tour victory but while he was the fastest and most assured of his rivals on the cobbles, often surging to the front when they began and at times opening gaps, the weather (dry) and wind (headwind making it difficult to maintain gaps) didn't play ball, and while the size of the peloton dwindled, the names that mattered remained intact.
One such name was Chris Froome, of who many felt would struggle on this terrain, but he rode superbly and rarely left the front handful even forcing the issue coming off the final sector of cobbles, briefly opening a gap with a select group of seven or eight men that included Nibali but not Contador or Quintana. It was eventually pegged back however and it left us wondering what might have been had there been just a sector or two more.
Still, it might be wrong to suggest the stage will have no long-term baring on the general classification. Take Nairo Quintana for example. The little lightweight was meant to suffer today and perhaps shed minutes, something he could ill afford to do given he entered the stage already 1'56" behind Froome, but he hung in, and should he find his best form in the mountains and put the rest in trouble, he might look back to this day, when he didn't lose the tour, as a day that helped him win it.
There's a long way to go though before we can even think about analysing the stage like that, but for what it was, it was a fine day of action. Tomorrow things should settle a little and the race should revert to the kind of opening week stage we used to know in the 90s and 00s as the sprinters have their way. We've certainly been spoiled by this Tour thus far and there's even more still to come in the days and weeks ahead.
| Result: | Classement: |
| 1. T. Martin (EQS) in 5h28'58" 2. Degenklob (TGA) +3" 3. Sagan (TCS) 4. Van Avermaet (BMC) 5. Boasson Hagen (MTN) 6. Bouhanni (COF) all s.t. | 1. T. Martin (EQS) in 12h40'26" 2. Froome (SKY) +12" 3. Van Garderen (BMC) +25" 4. Gallopin (LTS) +38" 5. Sagan (TCS) +39" 6. Van Avermaet (BMC) +40" --- 8. Contador (TCS) +48" 13. Nibali (AST) +1'50" 17. Quintana (MOV) +2'8" 30. Pinot (FDJ) +6'30" |
