Stage 4 of the Tour de France is today as the race heads back to the mainland of France. Stages 1-3 took place on the Mediterranean island of Corsica but now cyclists will compete in a team time trial in a roundabout route starting and finishing in the city of Nice. In case you’ve missed the first three stages, you can check out the video highlights below.
Stage 3 yesterday was a medium-mountain stage through Corisca and Australian rider Simon Gerrans won it just ahead of Peter Sagan. You can see how the top 10 cyclists finished stage 3 right here:
- Simon Gerrans (Australia/Orica) 3hr 41min 24sec
- Peter Sagan (Cannondale) (same time)
- Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar)
- Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick-Step)
- Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing)
- Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil)
- Francesco Gavazzi (Astana)
- Maxime Bouet (France / AG2R)
- Julien Simon (France / Sojasun)
- Gorka Izagirre (Spain / Euskaltel)
The stage 4 time trial wil be an entirely flat course with nine different turns and plenty of long stretches as cyclists will ride to and from the coastal city of Nice. The length of the course is 25 kilometers (roughly 15.5 miles) and as you’ll see in the stage 4 preview video below, the flatness of the course combined with the sprawling straightaways will lead to faster than usual trial times.
The time trial determines which team starts the next stage with intervals in between team starts. The teams with the better times begin later than those with slower times in order to provide the faster, more deserving teams the actual race time of the team that started ahead of them. Later starters have the advantage of knowing what times they need to beat.
Here are the overall standings of the 2013 Tour de France since completing stage 3:
- Jan Bakelants (RadioShack) 12hr 21min 27sec
- Julien Simon (Sojasun) +1sec
- Simon Gerrans (Orica Greenedge) + 1sec
- Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick-Step) +1sec
- Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) +1sec
- Daryl Impey (Orica)+1sec
- David Millar (Garmin)+1sec
- Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil) +1sec
- Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) +1sec
- Romain Bardet (AG2R) +1sec
