Tour de France 2013 – Stage 04 [FULL STAGE – Team Time Trial]

July 2, 2013

Tour de France 2013 – Stage 4 – Nice (TTT) : 25 km

The 2013 Tour de France was the 100th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling’s Grand Tours. It started on the island of Corsica on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 21 July. The Tour consisted of twenty-one race stages and covered a total distance of 3,403.5 km (2,115 mi).

One day after Simon Gerrans won Orica-GreenEdge’s first Tour de France stage, the Australian team once again found themselves atop the podium, this time after winning the 25km stage 4 team time trial in Nice.

Third best at the intermediate check point, three seconds down on reigning team time trial world champions Omega Pharma-QuickStep, Orica-GreenEdge would complete the course in 25:56, just 75 hundredths of a second ahead of the Belgian squad, who set the day’s early benchmark and had to settle for second. Team Sky rounded out the top three for the day with a time of 25:59, three seconds down on Orica-GreenEdge.

The victory by Orica-GreenEdge put stage three winner Simon Gerrans into the yellow jersey as maillot jaune Jan Bakelants’s squad RadioShack Leopard conceded 29 seconds on the day, dropping the Belgian to 32nd overall.

“It was a fantastic team effort,” Gerrans said. “Everyone committed 100 percent today, as they did yesterday, and it’s fantastic that today we get rewarded with a team win and the yellow jersey to top it off. I knew there weren’t many weak links in our team – it’s a very even team with a few strong guys and everyone stuck to their role.

“The big thing I achieved yesterday was to open the flood gates. The first win is always the hardest to get and I was sure they were going to come thick and fast after that but never in our wildest dreams did we think it would come already today.

“It’s the pinnacle of the sport to get the yellow jersey, so few guys have had that honour. There’s every opportunity to keep it for the next couple of days and we’ll do our best.”

Orica-GreenEdge occupies the top three places on general classification, with Gerrans’s teammates Daryl Impey and Michael Albasini in second and third respectively in the same time as Gerrans.

Omega Pharma-QuickStep’s Michal Kwiatkowski and Sylvain Chavanel hold fourth and fifth respectively overall, both one second behind Gerrans.

Sky’s third place finish puts overall Tour de France favourite Chris Froome in seventh overall at three seconds, the highest-placed of the general classification contenders. Alberto Contador (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) is 12th overall at nine seconds, Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) is 14th at 17 seconds while Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) is placed 16th overall, also at 17 seconds.

Movistar’s GC trio of Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana and Rui Costa are all 20 seconds back while 2011 Tour champion Cadel Evans (BMC) is now 28th overall at 26 seconds.

Several overall favourites, however, are already nearly one minute or in excess of one minute off the pace. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) sits 56 seconds back, Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale) trails by 1:04, while mountain classification leader Pierre Rolland (Europcar) is now 1:13 behind.

How it happened

After three days on the island of Corsica the Tour moved onto mainland France for stage 4, a flat 25km team time trial taking place along the Cote d’Azur in Nice. Omega Pharma-QuickStep, the current team time trial world champions and also the squad of individual TT world champion Tony Martin, were the second team to start and their scintillating intermediate split time of 13:16 at the 13km mark would prove to be the fastest of the day. The Belgian team continued to fire on all cylinders through to the finish line to set the early best time of 25:57.

Fellow Belgian team Lotto Belisol was next on the road after Omega Pharma-QuickStep, and after trailing by eight seconds at the intermediate split they conceded nine more seconds to finish in 26:13, for the moment a second place provisional placing and ultimately good enough for fifth by the day’s end.

The Cannondale team of points leader Peter Sagan was the fourth team to start and almost immediately into their effort Tour debutant Ted King, who crashed heavily on the opening stage finale and suffered a separated shoulder, was dropped by his teammates. Riding a road bike with aero clip-ons instead of a full time trial rig, King faced a heavy task ahead to finish within the 25 percent time cut on a day where the winning team averaged in excess of 57 km/hr.

The Garmin-Sharp squad, eighth to start in Nice, rolled through the 13km intermediate split in 13:20, four seconds behind Omega Pharma-QuickStep to momentarily set the second-best split time. The US WorldTour team would finish mere fractions of a second in arrears of Lotto Belisol, for the moment the third best overall time but ultimately the sixth fastest.

Tenth to start, Team Sky came through the intermediate split five seconds down on Omega Pharma-QuickStep, but managed to pick up a couple of seconds on the second half of the course to stop the clock in 25:59, two seconds down on the Belgian team for a provisional second place result, ultimately good enough for third on the day. Despite having a cracked pelvis, Sky’s Geraint Thomas was able to stay in the rotation through to the flamme rouge, where he dropped off the back, but managed to survive to fight another day.

Movistar, one of the team time trial favourites, were eight seconds down at the intermediate split and would finish in 26:15, a time good enough for seventh on the stage.

Saxo-Tinkoff, the 15th team out on the road, came closest to Omega Pharma-QuickStep at the intermediate split, stopping the clock less than a second in arrears. Benjamin Noval would soon lose contact, however, after the Spaniard clipped a spectator’s camera resulting in a torn tendon on his left index finger. The team would concede a few seconds in the latter portion of the route, but finished in a fine 26:05, for fourth on the day.

Orica-GreenEdge, the 18th team to start, clocked the third-best intermediate split of 13:19, three seconds back, but the Australian team managed to claw back their deficit to set a new best time of 25:56, edging Omega Pharma-QuickStep by less than one second.

Four teams still remained on course after Orica-GreenEdge – Lampre-Merida, Vacansoleil-DCM, BMC and RadioShack Leopard – but none would threaten the Australian team’s effort on the day.

Results :
1 Orica Greenedge 0:25:56
2 Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:00:01
3 Sky Procycling 0:00:03
4 Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:00:09
5 Lotto-Belisol 0:00:17
6 Garmin – Sharp
7 Movistar Team 0:00:20
8 Lampre – Merida 0:00:25
9 BMC Racing Team 0:00:26
10 Katusha Team 0:00:28
11 Radioshack Leopard 0:00:29
12 Vacansoleil-Dcm 0:00:33
13 Cannondale 0:00:34
14 Belkin Pro Cycling 0:00:37
15 Fdj.Fr 0:00:42
16 Astana Pro Team 0:00:56
17 Ag2R La Mondiale 0:01:04
18 Sojasun 0:01:10
19 Team Europcar 0:01:13
20 Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:01:20
21 Euskaltel – Euskadi 0:01:24
22 Team Argos-Shimano 0:01:47

General Classification after Stage 4 :
1 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 12:47:24
2 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEdge
3 Michael Albasini (Swi) Orica-GreenEdge
4 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:00:01
5 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
6 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling 0:00:03
7 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling
8 Richie Porte (Aus) Sky Procycling
9 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:00:09
10 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
11 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
12 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
13 David Millar (GBr) Garmin-Sharp 0:00:17
14 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol
15 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Belisol
16 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Sharp
17 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin-Sharp
18 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin-Sharp
19 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp
20 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Sharp
21 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:20
22 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team
23 Andrey Amador Bakkazakova (CRc) Movistar Team
24 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team
25 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:00:25
26 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida
27 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Lampre-Merida
28 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:26
29 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing Team
30 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
31 Amaël Moinard (Fra) BMC Racing Team
32 Jan Bakelants (Bel) RadioShack Leopard 0:00:28
33 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katusha
34 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha
35 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha
36 Maxime Monfort (Bel) RadioShack Leopard 0:00:29
37 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) RadioShack Leopard
38 Andy Schleck (Lux) RadioShack Leopard
39 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack Leopard
40 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:00:33
41 Wouter Poels (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
42 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
43 Peter Sagan (Svk) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:00:34
44 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:37
45 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
46 Bram Tankink (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
47 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
48 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:00:42
49 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr
50 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) FDJ.fr
51 Elia Favilli (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:00:48
52 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:00:56
53 Fredrik Carl Wilhelm Kessiakoff (Swe) Astana Pro Team
54 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana Pro Team
55 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:04
56 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
57 Maxime Bouet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
58 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
59 Julien Simon (Fra) Sojasun 0:01:10
60 Brice Feillu (Fra) Sojasun
61 Maxime Mederel (Fra) Sojasun
62 Davide Malacarne (Ita) Team Europcar 0:01:13
63 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar
64 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 0:01:15
65 Manuele Mori (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:01:16
66 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:01:20
67 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
68 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:01:24
69 Gorka Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
70 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
71 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
72 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:44
73 Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:01:57
74 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) Sojasun 0:03:39
75 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Team Europcar 0:03:42
76 Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:04:32
77 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:04:36
78 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:04:44
79 Rudy Molard (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:05:00
80 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:05:01
81 Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:05:04
82 Jean-Marc Marino (Fra) Sojasun 0:05:24
83 Yury Trofimov (Rus) Katusha 0:05:30
84 Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack Leopard 0:05:31
85 Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:05:51
86 Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Sojasun 0:06:01
87 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:06:04
88 Kristijan Koren (Slo) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:06:12
89 Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Sojasun 0:06:48
90 Julien El Fares (Fra) Sojasun
91 Cyril Gautier (Fra) Team Europcar 0:07:47
92 Ruben Plaza Molina (Spa) Movistar Team 0:08:06
93 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:08:35
94 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:08:52
95 Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:09:03
96 Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:09:18
97 Davide Cimolai (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:09:40
98 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Katusha 0:09:46
99 Moreno Moser (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:09:49
100 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:09:57
101 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Sojasun 0:10:29
102 Alberto Losada Alguacil (Spa) Katusha 0:11:24
103 Bart De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Belisol 0:13:00
104 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team 0:13:03
105 Laurent Didier (Lux) RadioShack Leopard 0:13:29
106 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:13:36
107 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Movistar Team 0:13:41
108 Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa) RadioShack Leopard 0:13:50
109 Jerome Coppel (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:14:03
110 Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Sky Procycling 0:14:07
111 Jesus Hernandez Blazquez (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:14:13
112 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:14:15
113 Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:14:30
114 Jens Voigt (Ger) RadioShack Leopard 0:14:33
115 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:14:46
116 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Argos-Shimano 0:14:47
117 David Veilleux (Can) Team Europcar 0:15:20
118 Gatis Smukulis (Lat) Katusha 0:15:21
119 Matteo Bono (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:16:09
120 Peter Velits (Svk) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:17:35
121 Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
122 Simon Clarke (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 0:17:36
123 Lars Ytting Bak (Den) Lotto Belisol 0:18:02
124 Blel Kadri (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:18:04
125 Alan Marangoni (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:18:25
126 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:18:49
127 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:18:54
128 Cameron Meyer (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 0:19:06
129 Boy van Poppel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:19:13
130 Simon Geschke (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano 0:19:21
131 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Garmin-Sharp 0:19:44
132 Maarten Wynants (Bel) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:20:32
133 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Sky Procycling 0:21:17
134 José Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Spa) Movistar Team 0:21:29
135 Lars Boom (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:21:51
136 Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:21:56
137 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Belisol 0:22:22
138 Egoitz Garcia Echeguibel (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:22:29
139 Luis Angel Mate Mardones (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
140 Brian Vandborg (Den) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:22:32
141 Juan Jose Oroz Ugalde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:22:33
142 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:22:54
143 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano 0:22:56
144 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:23:13
145 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Sky Procycling 0:23:50
146 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) BMC Racing Team 0:23:53
147 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha 0:24:15
148 Sep Vanmarcke (Bel) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:24:22
149 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 0:24:48
150 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
151 Matthew Harley Goss (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 0:26:00
152 Svein Tuft (Can) Orica-GreenEdge
153 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:26:01
154 Ian Stannard (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:26:03
155 Imanol Erviti Ollo (Spa) Movistar Team 0:26:20
156 Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:26:33
157 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:26:34
158 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:26:50
159 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
160 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
161 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:27:02
162 Sébastien Minard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:27:04
163 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto Belisol 0:27:06
164 Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
165 Yohann Gene (Fra) Team Europcar 0:27:13
166 Adriano Malori (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:27:14
167 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:27:15
168 William Bonnet (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:27:19
169 Murilo Antonio Fischer (Bra) FDJ.fr
170 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Garmin-Sharp 0:27:20
171 Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:27:22
172 Johnny Hoogerland (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:27:24
173 Greg Henderson (NZl) Lotto Belisol 0:27:30
174 Romain Sicard (Fra) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:27:31
175 Thomas Leezer (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:27:35
176 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:27:37
177 Kévin Reza (Fra) Team Europcar 0:27:44
178 Frederik Willems (Bel) Lotto Belisol
179 Roy Curvers (Ned) Team Argos-Shimano 0:27:47
180 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano
181 Jack Bauer (NZl) Garmin-Sharp 0:27:49
182 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:27:57
183 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Lotto Belisol 0:28:00
184 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:28:05
185 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr) Katusha 0:28:08
186 Juan Jose Lobato Del Valle (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:28:14
187 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano 0:28:36
188 Koen De Kort (Ned) Team Argos-Shimano
189 Albert Timmer (Ned) Team Argos-Shimano
190 Jerome Cousin (Fra) Team Europcar 0:28:45
191 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:28:58
192 Ruben Perez Moreno (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:29:13
193 Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:30:31
194 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:35:00
195 Tom Veelers (Ned) Team Argos-Shimano 0:36:05
TBD Edward King (USA) Cannondale Pro Cycling