Another victory for Jumbo-Visma! Its leader Primoz Roglic imposed himself in beefy at the end of the fourth stage at the end of which he seized the red jersey of leader.
The start of the race is not difficult, so several riders try to take the lead. Whether Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Premier Tech) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) are the first out, they are then joined by Jarrad Drizners (Lotto-Soudal), Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) and Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
With the presence of Lutsenko in front, the peloton does not want to leave too much of a lead to the fugitives. Best member of the breakaway overall (66th to 46th), the Kazakh mainly finished in the top 10 of the last Tour de France, a data important enough for the peloton to let him slip away. In front is the Jumbo-Visma team, in the red jersey Edoardo Affini et Primoz Roglicand training Bora-Hansgrohe de Jai Hindleywinner of the last Giro, who do the job.
By taking the lead on the first climb of the day, Bou took the opportunity to take the blue polka dot jersey from Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost). Behind, the peloton leaves up to three minutes in advance and does not try to catch the fugitives too soon.
About thirty kilometers from the finish, with only three riders left in front, Mads Pedersen (Trek – Segafredo) et Sam Bennett (BORA – hansgrohe), respectively second and first in the points classification, took advantage of the intermediate sprint to rack up a few additional units while most of their competitors were dropped.
From the start of the penultimate climb, 21 kilometers from the line, Affini can no longer keep up with the pace of the peloton and therefore abandons his leader’s tunic. At the top of the last ascent, Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) accelerates, followed by Roglic. The Slovenian even crosses the line before him, thus pocketing three bonus seconds and becoming the virtual leader.
The two strong men did not try to push the break further and rejoined the peloton which is now heading for the last climb.
First it was the Trek-Segafredo team that showed up for Pedersen but Roglic was the first red favorite to make a real effort. Stronger than the others, the Slovenian was never really worried and won in the sprint ahead of Pedersen and Enrique Mas (Movistar)
This victory allows him to recover the leader’s red jersey from Affini. Jumbo-Visma therefore continues to pass this tunic from one runner to another.
Eighth of the stage, Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) took the opportunity to move up to sixth place overall. It should be noted that several candidates for the podium such as Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange – Jayco), Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) or Mikel Landa (Bahrain – Victorious) lost seven seconds at the finish.