Stage 4 of the Tour de France, ending by the sea in Calais, was set to be the last chance for the sprinters of the peloton to show their stuff for some time, with the next sprints not likely to arrive until the end of the second week.
However, the fast men ultimately didn’t have a chance to follow the wheel tracks of Fabio Jakobsen and Dylan Groenewegen and battle it out for the last time in 10 days, with Wout van Aert’s stunning late solo attack putting paid to those hopes.
In the end, it was Alpecin-Deceuninck’s sprinter Jasper Philipsen who led the peloton home for second, celebrating in error with Van Aert up the road. Further back, Jakobsen, wearing the green jersey on Van Aert’s behalf, sprinted home in 12th, while Groenewegen was 122nd at 1:33 down.
Speaking to Cyclingnews after the stage, Jakobsen said that Jumbo-Visma played the tactics – attacking on the final climb of the Côte du Cap Blanc-Nez – perfectly, adding that they have, in Van Aert, the strongest man in the race.
“I think Jumbo had a perfect team tactic with Wout. They have perhaps the strongest guy in the bunch so congrats to them,” Jakobsen said.
“I think I was in a quite decent group over the top, but we didn’t manage to close it and in the positioning towards the last straight I got a bit boxed but also I didn’t really have the legs to sprint.
“The climbs just broke my legs a bit, but you always need to try, and we did. Unfortunately, not too many points and no result but I’m happy. So, this is what it is and then now tomorrow we’re going to eat some cobbles.”
Jakobsen, clad in his green skinsuit as he sat on the steps of the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl bus, said that he would continue the battle for the points classification. He currently lies second in the standings, albeit already 61 points behind Van Aert.
He pointed out that anything can happen to green jersey contenders during the Tour, with the 2017 Tour seeing Marcel Kittel crashing out of green and Peter Sagan getting disqualified early on being perhaps the freshest examples.
“No, I think I think you just need to collect points to even be in,” Jakobsen said, noting there were maybe three or four sprint chances left in the race. “It’s also nice for in the coming week to have something to do because it’s probably not going to be for me, and you never know what happens. It’s not the first time that the leader of the green jersey – that can always happen something in a race.
“It’s always a bike race. I think as a sprinter you need…
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