Roglic wins Tour de France fourth stage

ORCIERES MERLETTE (France) • Slovenian Primoz Roglic, one of the main contenders this year, showed no ill effects of his crash earlier this month at the Criterum du Dauphine as he prevailed in the first mountain-top finish of the Tour de France in the fourth stage, a 160.5-km ride from Sisteron yesterday.

His compatriot Tadej Pogacar was second and Frenchman Guillaume Martin was third in a sprint that featured all the pre-race favourites.

France's Julian Alaphilippe retained the overall leader's yellow jersey when he took fifth place, four seconds in front of Britain's Adam Yates, with the Mitchelton-Scott rider in second.

Roglic, whose participation in the Tour was put in doubt after he was forced to withdraw despite leading the Criterium ahead of the final stage, eased to victory to claim a 10-second bonus and send an early warning to his rivals.

This was his third career stage win at the blue-riband race and the 30-year-old, who is now just seven seconds behind Alaphilippe of Belgian team Deceuninck-Quick-Step, claimed he was getting strong.

Defending champion Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers is a further 10 seconds behind.

Roglic, leader of Dutch team Jumbo-Visma, said: "It was quite a fast day, quite hard. The guys again did a really good job and I was always in a good position.

"In the end, I could do a good sprint and I'm really happy.

"It's the news I have to accept, I don't really care about the yellow jersey right now. We have to continue like this.

"I'm coming back after my crash at the Dauphine. Every day, I feel a little better."

Today's fifth stage is a 183km effort from Gap to Privas.

REUTERS