Tour de France 2019 stage 4: Reims > Nancy 213,5 km

[Simurgh]

Tomorrow is another day for the competitors for the green jersey, a flat day from Reims to Nancy:

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Last time the Tour visited in Nancy was in 2014, where Trentin just about managed to win in front of Sagan:

Other visits that caught my eye were 1978 (a time trial on stage 20, which Bernard Hinault won), 1973 where Joop Zoetemelk won and Fausto Coppi has won two stages in Nancy in 1949 and 1952 both years in which he won il Giro d'Italia and le Tour, here pictured with his rival Gino Bartali...

General classification before tomorrow:

1. Julian ALAPHILIPPE
2. Wout VAN AERT + 20''
3. Steven KRUIJSWIJK + 25''
4. George BENNETT + 25''
5. Michael MATTHEWS + 40''
6. Egan BERNAL + 40''
7. Geraint THOMAS + 45''
8. Enric MAS + 46''
9. Greg VAN AVERMAET + 51''
10. Wilco KELDERMAN + 51''

Polka-dot jersey competition before tomorrow:

1. Tim WELLENS 7
2. Xandro MEURISSE 3
3. Greg VAN AVERMAET 2
4. Julian ALAPHILIPPE 2
5. Nairo QUINTANA 1

Green jersey competition before tomorrow:

1. Peter SAGAN 76
2. Michal MATTHEWS 59
3. Sonny COLBRELLI 54
4. Mike TEUNISSEN 50
5. Greg VAN AVERMAET 40

Weather at the finish line

 

[Laplaz]

Is the last climb easy enough for Groenewegen?

 

[Velolover2]

Groenewegen is the only top sprinter that can be eliminated on a climb like this.

Should be a bunch sprint with an almost intact peloton. Viviani is the favorite IMO. He survived some tough stages in Suisse with harder climbs near the finish.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

DCQ should ride the climb as fast as Viviani can manage. Or Lotto should do the same for Ewan.

 

[mode747]

Viviani - Groenewegen - or Sagan? I have all three need to pick a road captain. Currently leaning towards Viviani worried about the Cat 4 dropping Groenewegen. I should probably just make Sagan captain as he is almost guaranteed to be in the top 5 but everyone has him on their team.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Viviani - Groenewegen - or Sagan? I have all three need to pick a road captain. Currently leaning towards Viviani worried about the Cat 4 dropping Groenewegen. I should probably just make Sagan captain as he is almost guaranteed to be in the top 5 but everyone has him on their team.

I have Viviani and Sagan as well. I'm leaning towards Vivani for road captain tomorrow as well. Although you do have a point about just give it Sagan and figure he'll at least be close. Screwed up today and should have made Sagan my road captain.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Ideal stage for Viviani.

 

[Anderis]

Greenweigh FTW.

 

[alspacka]

I'm not sure about Viviani here. If say Sunweb and Bora go all out I believe he could be gapped on that climb.

 

[Moviefan1203]

I like Ewan here.

 

[Sibirn]

I'm not sure about Viviani here. If say Sunweb and Bora go all out I believe he could be gapped on that climb.

Well, then you dident watch Tour de Suisse

 

[movingtarget]

Ewan if he switched off early enough yesterday.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

https://twitter.com/DeGendtThomas/status/1148283406385655808

Thomas De Gendt @DeGendtThomas
Found a familiar jersey in my room. Finders keepers

 

[Lequack]

47 Big Photos from Stage 3 (descriptions to come) — corvos/flockton/bettini/veloimages/aso/getty
http://www.steephill.tv/2019/tour-de-france/photos/stage-03/

 

[Robert5091]

GC rest day - QS to keep Ala in yellow and hope Viviani can follow his lead out men.

 

[Cinemaniak]

Nice 'little' stage for Groenewegen, this climb shouldn't be a problem with the help from his team (keeping him upfront). See a close battle between him and Ewan, although Ewan doesn't have a great lead-out.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

A non-injured Groenewegen would not get dropped here. Now he's injured that's a different story.

Also get the feeling people forgot he won Champs Elysees when he completed a Tour, surviving easily in the mt stages.
People's view of him have been skewed because he was injured last year in the mountains..
Now it's the same story because of the fall on day 1.

 

[Jagartrott]

It's a 3 km climb, that's enough to shed some heavy-weights. Teams like Bora and Sunweb would be stupid not to race this 100%. And if the pace is too slow, perhaps some punchers will try their luck, inspired by Alaphilippe.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Re:

It's a 3 km climb, that's enough to shed some heavy-weights. Teams like Bora and Sunweb would be stupid not to race this 100%. And if the pace is too slow, perhaps some punchers will try their luck, inspired by Alaphilippe.

Yep, every single pure sprinter was dropped here back in 2014.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

It's a 3 km climb, that's enough to shed some heavy-weights. Teams like Bora and Sunweb would be stupid not to race this 100%. And if the pace is too slow, perhaps some punchers will try their luck, inspired by Alaphilippe.

Yep, every single pure sprinter was dropped here back in 2014.

In 2014 they had another, harder climb after it which was also closer to the finish.

 

[F_Cance]

Re: Re:

It's a 3 km climb, that's enough to shed some heavy-weights. Teams like Bora and Sunweb would be stupid not to race this 100%. And if the pace is too slow, perhaps some punchers will try their luck, inspired by Alaphilippe.

Yep, every single pure sprinter was dropped here back in 2014.

2014 had one climb more though

 

[search]

yeah, it's not like 2014 at all. It's like 2005, when basically not a single sprinter was dropped (although the weather was bad)

 

[Pharazon]

Asgren starts

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

It's a 3 km climb, that's enough to shed some heavy-weights. Teams like Bora and Sunweb would be stupid not to race this 100%. And if the pace is too slow, perhaps some punchers will try their luck, inspired by Alaphilippe.

Yep, every single pure sprinter was dropped here back in 2014.

2014 had one climb more though

Forgot all about that.

The last climb may indeed not be a problem then if it's never much above 5%. Does anyone have a detailed profile of the last hill?

 

[Cinemaniak]

Re:

It's a 3 km climb, that's enough to shed some heavy-weights. Teams like Bora and Sunweb would be stupid not to race this 100%. And if the pace is too slow, perhaps some punchers will try their luck, inspired by Alaphilippe.

Yep, every single pure sprinter was dropped here back in 2014.

2014 had one climb more though

Forgot all about that.

The last climb may indeed not be a problem then if it's never much above 5%. Does anyone have a detailed profile of the last hill?

Yes, and it's even less difficult than imagined I guess. Every sprinter has the ability to survive those 2,5km 'steeper' section.
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