TDF Stage 4: Roglic emerges

Primoz Roglic has been touted as a future Tour winner for a while, and today he passed the first real test to determine if this will be his year by winning the summit finish at Orcières-Merlette.

After finishing fourth in 2018, last year Roglic rode the Giro (3rd overall) and the Vuelta (winner) instead, gaining valuable experience that he will help him in this strange year. He seems to have bounced back from a crash that saw him abandon the Dauphiné a couple weeks ago, and importantly he has the support of a very strong Jumbo-Visma team who set such a suffocating tempo on today’s final climb that nobody else could muster an attack.

TDF Stage 3: Ewan punches his ticket for Lotto

As expected, Stage 3 came down to a sprint but there was plenty of intrigue along the way as two Frenchmen duked it out for the best climber jersey.

Jersey wearer Benoit Cosnefroy went into the stage tied on points with Anthony Perez, and both riders took off from the gun to form the early break with compatriot Jerome Cousin. Perez proved the stronger over the first two climbs, and as they left Cousin to his own devices out front and  returned to the peloton, it looked like Perez would take the jersey at the end of the day.

TDF Stage 2: Alaphilippe back in yellow

In a stage tailor made for Julian Alaphillipe, Julian Alaphilippe attacked over the final climb, claimed victory in a three-up sprint, and took the yellow jersey.

The French — who haven’t had a Tour winner since 1985 — will be ecstatic as on paper this looks like a repeat of 2019, when Alaphilippe took the Tour lead early and held it up to the penultimate stage, despite Alaphilippe’s insistence that he is not targeting the overall this year.