Rutger Tijssen, Visma Lease A Bike team manager, talks to TNT Sports about the time Pauline Ferrand-Prévot lost yesterday in the time trial.
“Losing minutes never makes you happy,” he says. “In, let’s say five days, we can say if it was too much, of if it was good for us.
“[Losing around a minute] is not that bad at all. Her ‘play card’ is still around the corner. We are looking forward to the coming days, especially this Friday, when we are going to approach the Mont Ventoux.
Asked if Ferrand-Prévot may attack and try to win some time back today, Tijssen says: “You should always take an opportunity if it’s there: but first, it has to be created.”
That’s quite deep.
“We don’t have the team to ride all day and control everything … we’re just going to try to take Marlen safely to finish,” says Kelvin Dekker, Movistar Team assistant sports director. He agrees that today will be a very difficult one to control [© Sean Kelly].
What was the mood like on the bus this morning, with Reusser in yellow?
“It was amazing. We were playing around with the yellow bike, yellow helmets, they were taking selfies with the lion … morale is really high … because you expect it, it doesn’t make it less fun … Marlen tried on the yellow skinsuit, it was a bit of a fashion show then, and it’s really cool to see.”
Updated
I reckon today is going to be frantic, and we will see a shake-up in the GC.
What do you think? Email me. Merci.
Updated
Top 10 GC before stage five
1. Marlen Reusser (Movistar) 11hr 47min 36sec
2. Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) +14sec
3. Cedrine Kerbaol (FEF Education-Oatly) +54sec
4. Sigrid Haugset (NUno-X Mobility) +56sec
5. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’Imad) +1min 03sec
6. Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) +1min 09sec
7. Paula Blasi Cairol (UAE Team L’Imad) +1min 12sec
8. Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) +1min 17sec
9. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) +1min 43sec
10. Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 47sec
Away from stage four, the news agenda was dominated yesterday by news of extra checks by UCI commissaires for irregular chest padding, reportedly being used by riders to boost aerodynamics. Jeremy Whittle reports:
Marlen Reusser of Movistar triumphed in yesterday’s individual time trial, AKA the Race of Truth. Read Jeremy Whittle’s report:
Preamble
Stage five is classified as hilly, and you can say that again. There are eight categorised ascents and lots of uncategorised ones on what promises to be a draining 140km journey from Mâcon to Belleville-en-Beaujolais.
With 2,900m climbing in total, it’s not the most punishing day on paper, but there is potential for this to be a horribly demanding stage for all concerned. Some will fancy their chances in a breakaway but the GC teams will naturally be looking to control: if an overall contender such as Demi Vollering is feeling good, she might try and attack on the final couple of climbs.
It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that a breakaway is allowed up the road to fight for the stage amid a ceasefire in GC: but the riders will suspect today is going to be far more hectic than that, and a fierce fight from the start is likely.
Neutralised start: 13.45 CET/12.45 BST
