2021 Tour de France Stage 4 Results & Recap
Stage 4 of the 2021 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Cavendish wins stage 4
Mark Cavendish is back! The Manx Missile took an emotional stage win today at the Tour de France after a fantastic lead out from his trusty lieutenant Michael Morkov. Nacer Bouhanni (ARK) finished second and Jasper Philipsen (AFC) was third after 154km of flat and fast racing through Brittany. The stage went smoothly and a far cry from yesterday's chaos.
“Just being here is special," Cavendish said. "I thought I might never come back to this race. Just thanks to the whole team. In the final kilometres we lost [Davide] Ballerini, who was due to launch my sprint, but then the green jersey and world champion [Julian Alaphilippe] put himself at my service. You see there what a team this is. So many people believes in me… When you come to DQS, with the best riders of the world, I knew it was going to be difficult to come here. I never ever want bad things to happen to other people… because it has happened to me before. Never give up. It’s a message for everyone who is going through a difficult situation. You can always come back. Never give up. That’s my message. Three weeks ago I wouldn’t even have dreamt of winning a stage like this. It takes a team like Deceuninck-Quick Step to make it. It is the best team of the world, the most professional one. It was so emotional to stand on the podium. When I was a kid, even before racing a bike myself, all I saw was the podium and the Tour de France. It’s been a whole life since I saw Chris Boardman crashing out in Ireland. To see circumstances taking that away for me was hard. It’s unbelievable to take it back.”
Mathieu Van Der Poel (AFC) remains in the yellow jersey before the time trial tomorrow, where he predicts it will be a challenge to hang on to the malliot jaune for another day. He leads Julian Alaphilippe by 8 seconds on GC.
"I enjoyed the yellow jersey very much today," van der Poel said. "There was a nice weather and lots of spectators on the roadside. Of course we would have liked to win the stage. We worked hard for our sprinters, but it doesn’t always work out like planned. [Brent] Van Moer is such a strong cyclist. We knew what he was capable of because we had seen his performances in other races, like the Critérium du Dauphiné. What a strong ride he pulled off today! Tomorrow’s ITT is one for the specialists. I will try to do my best to keep the yellow jersey, but it won’t be easy. Wout van Aert, for instance, is a very strong time-triallist. TTs are something I don’t work that much on." #alaphilipp
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