logo
Tour de France stage four preview: Dream day for breakaway artists on climb-heavy stage

Tour de France stage four preview: Dream day for breakaway artists on climb-heavy stage

Yahoo08-07-2025
After a trio of stages in France's far north, the Tour de France route ventures southwards to really kick off its anti-clockwise jaunt around the country.
Amiens is the host town for this tricky 173km run to Rouen, a stage which a multitude of riders and teams will have bookmarked as it really could be anyone's game.
It's also one we picked out to potentially trip up the general classification contenders if they don't keep their wits - and their teammates - about them.
The parcours is rolling all day with plenty of uncategorised lumps and bumps before the technical climbing starts in the final third of the stage, with five categorised climbs inside the last 50km, three cat-fours and two-cat twos - including the Cote Jacques Anquetil, after the Tour great.
Any split in the bunch could be lethal to the chances of yellow jersey hopefuls caught on the wrong side, and it's could be another day of relentless attacking and counter-attacking as riders look to launch winning moves and avoid missing out.
The final climb comes 5km from the finish, the 800m wall of the 10.6% Rampe Saint-Hilaire, which is likely to be decisive.
Stage four is set to begin at 1.15pm local time, 12.15pm BST, and finish at 5.20pm local time (4.20pm BST).
This could quite literally be anyone's game, to the point that it feels impossible to predict. Victor Campenaerts and Jonas Abrahamsen will surely light up the race with plenty of attacks, but whether they make the crucial break is another story, and the former may instead be pressed into service keeping Jonas Vingegaard out of danger.
Romain Gregoire also likes this sort of terrain; Alex Aranburu and Thibau Nys can climb and pack a punch too. Of what feels like a hundred options, we're going with Axel Laurance, who likes a punchy stage and has been a constant attacking presence for Ineos Grenadiers this year.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Track and field sets Sept. 1 deadline for female eligibility gene tests ahead of worlds in Tokyo
Track and field sets Sept. 1 deadline for female eligibility gene tests ahead of worlds in Tokyo

Yahoo

time27 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Track and field sets Sept. 1 deadline for female eligibility gene tests ahead of worlds in Tokyo

MONACO (AP) — Clarifying promised rules on female eligibility, track and field's governing body set a Sept. 1 deadline Wednesday for athletes to pass a gene test for competing at the world championships. World Athletics said in March it would require chromosome testing by cheek swabs or dry blood-spot tests for female athletes to be eligible for elite-level events. The next worlds open Sept. 13 in Tokyo and Sept. 1 is 'the closing date for entries and the date the regulations come into effect,' World Athletics said in a statement. The latest rules update gives certainty for the 2025 championships in an issue that has been controversial on the track and in multiple courts since Caster Semenya won her first 800 meters world title as a teenager in 2009. Semenya won a ruling at the European Court of Human Rights three weeks ago in Strasbourg, France, in the South Africa star's years-long challenge to a previous version of track and field's eligibility rules affecting athletes with medical conditions known as Differences in Sex Development. That legal win because she did not get a fair hearing at the Swiss supreme court did not overturn track's rules. World Athletics drew up rules in 2018 forcing two-time Olympic champion Semenya and other athletes with DSD to suppress their elevated natural testosterone levels to be eligible for international women's events. Semenya refused to take medication. Now, the Monaco-based track body requires a 'once-in-a-lifetime test' to determine athletes it says are biologically male with a Y chromosome. 'We are saying, at elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female,' World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said. The governing body is covering up to $100 of the costs for each test with the protocol overseen by its member federations at national level. Test results should be ready within two weeks. 'The SRY test is extremely accurate and the risk of false negative or positive is extremely unlikely,' World Athletics said. World Athletics has combined its eligibility framework for DSD and transgender athletes, with transitional rules that let 'a very small number of known DSD athletes' continue competing if they are taking medication to suppress natural testosterone. 'The transitional provisions do not apply to transgender women as there are none competing at the elite international level under the current regulations,' World Athletics said. Now age 34, and her track career effectively over, Semenya should now see her legal case go back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne, where she lost her original appeal against track and field's rules at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. ___ AP sports:

Léon Marchand breaks long-standing 200-meter individual medley world record at World Aquatics Championships
Léon Marchand breaks long-standing 200-meter individual medley world record at World Aquatics Championships

CNN

time28 minutes ago

  • CNN

Léon Marchand breaks long-standing 200-meter individual medley world record at World Aquatics Championships

Olympics People in sportsFacebookTweetLink Follow French swimmer Léon Marchand took more than a second off the 200-meter individual medley world record on Wednesday to shatter American Ryan Lochte's long-standing mark. Competing in the semifinals at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, Marchand clocked a time of 1:52.69 – 1.31 seconds faster than Lochte's record set in 2011. He may go even faster in Thursday's final, during which he will look to win a sixth world title and add to the four Olympic gold medals he claimed at last year's Paris Games. 'What's crazy is that it's a whole second (faster than the previous record) … and it's still hard to believe,' said Marchand, per World Aquatics. 'A 1:52 on the 200m – that's insane. I'm so happy. It's just incredible.' The 23-year-old is already an Olympic and two-time world champion in the 200m individual medley, which involves swimming a length of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle in the same race. After an injury-hit start to the year, Marchand returned to competitions in May and now appears to have rediscovered the kind of form that made him one of the biggest stars of last year's Olympics on home soil. 'Over the last 50 (meters), I still had people to chase,' he said. 'I tried to build that last lap well and went all out. It was really tough, obviously, because I was going at such a fast pace.' Marchand, who has 22 medals across the Olympics and World Championships, including 18 golds, will also compete in the 400m individual medley in Singapore, which is scheduled for Sunday.

Track and field sets Sept. 1 deadline for female eligibility gene tests ahead of worlds in Tokyo
Track and field sets Sept. 1 deadline for female eligibility gene tests ahead of worlds in Tokyo

Associated Press

time29 minutes ago

  • Associated Press

Track and field sets Sept. 1 deadline for female eligibility gene tests ahead of worlds in Tokyo

MONACO (AP) — Clarifying promised rules on female eligibility, track and field's governing body set a Sept. 1 deadline Wednesday for athletes to pass a gene test for competing at the world championships. World Athletics said in March it would require chromosome testing by cheek swabs or dry blood-spot tests for female athletes to be eligible for elite-level events. The next worlds open Sept. 13 in Tokyo and Sept. 1 is 'the closing date for entries and the date the regulations come into effect,' World Athletics said in a statement. The latest rules update gives certainty for the 2025 championships in an issue that has been controversial on the track and in multiple courts since Caster Semenya won her first 800 meters world title as a teenager in 2009. Semenya won a ruling at the European Court of Human Rights three weeks ago in Strasbourg, France, in the South Africa star's years-long challenge to a previous version of track and field's eligibility rules affecting athletes with medical conditions known as Differences in Sex Development. That legal win because she did not get a fair hearing at the Swiss supreme court did not overturn track's rules. World Athletics drew up rules in 2018 forcing two-time Olympic champion Semenya and other athletes with DSD to suppress their elevated natural testosterone levels to be eligible for international women's events. Semenya refused to take medication. Now, the Monaco-based track body requires a 'once-in-a-lifetime test' to determine athletes it says are biologically male with a Y chromosome. 'We are saying, at elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female,' World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said. The governing body is covering up to $100 of the costs for each test with the protocol overseen by its member federations at national level. Test results should be ready within two weeks. 'The SRY test is extremely accurate and the risk of false negative or positive is extremely unlikely,' World Athletics said. World Athletics has combined its eligibility framework for DSD and transgender athletes, with transitional rules that let 'a very small number of known DSD athletes' continue competing if they are taking medication to suppress natural testosterone. 'The transitional provisions do not apply to transgender women as there are none competing at the elite international level under the current regulations,' World Athletics said. Now age 34, and her track career effectively over, Semenya should now see her legal case go back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne, where she lost her original appeal against track and field's rules at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. ___ AP sports:

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store