Van Aert shows his sprint but Quinn Simmons stays clear with the break at the Dauphiné

Stage 4 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes has been won by Quinn Simmons. The American champion of Lidl-Trek was the quickest in the sprint from a strong breakaway group that just held off the sprinting peloton. Visma | Lease a Bike had done a great deal of work for Wout van Aert, who was left to show his quick legs behind the escapees.

The peloton was still carrying the marks of the previous day's big test for the Tour de France: the team time trial. Visma | Lease a Bike had won it despite Wout van Aert being well below his best, while Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) clung impressively on to the yellow jersey. With a relatively straightforward day on paper, he looked set to hold it for a while longer.

It appeared to be a day for the fast men. Or did it? Not quite. The final forty kilometres would be entirely flat, but the opening 120km was peppered with difficult hills. That gave the breakaway riders every reason to fancy their chances — and attacks came thick and fast. Many riders tried their luck, but the opening phase was fast, and nobody managed to get away.

It was only after around seventy kilometres that a proper breakaway formed. Twelve strong names: Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Sam Watson (Netcompany INEOS), Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility), Pablo Castrillo, Raúl García Pierna (Movistar), Lars Craps (Lotto-Intermarché), Jordan Jegat, Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), Joan Castellon (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), George Bennett and Marco Frigo (NSN).

Three pairs in the break made for good collaboration. But because the move had taken so long to come together, the peloton was not far behind. Bahrain Victorious moved to the front and Visma | Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Premier Tech also put riders up to help. By the time the final hill was behind them, the gap was just one minute and fifteen seconds. At that point, Juan Ayuso was seen getting dropped. Was something wrong? He later returned to the peloton with the help of a teammate, though what had happened was unclear.

On the descent of that final climb, the breakaway lost Watson. The British champion came down hard, apparently due to a puncture at high speed. It looked nasty for a moment, but he remounted and continued his race. Bennett also lost contact with the group, leaving ten riders at the front.

When Tudor was also seen riding on the front of the peloton, the breakaway riders knew the game was up. The gap dipped below a minute, with almost entirely flat roads ahead to the finish. The sprinters had clearly survived the hills: Netcompany INEOS were riding for Dorian Godon while Cofidis worked for Bryan Coquard.

The names at the front were no pushovers, however, so the teams had to work hard to reel in the big engines ahead. The gap was forty seconds, but those final kilometres proved stubborn going. With ten kilometres remaining it was still fifteen seconds, and then Simmons launched an attack. The American didn't get away, but the gap remained the same.

It was going to be desperately close. Second by second the break's lead was being eaten into, not least thanks to Visma | Lease a Bike: Edoardo Affini put in a monster turn at the front of the peloton while Castrillo up the road dug deep until he had nothing left to give. Under the final kilometre banner it was nine seconds. The peloton came just too late, and so it came down to a sprint. Simmons was the fastest, ahead of Fisher-Black. In the peloton, Van Aert was quickest.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]