1. FRANCE!
After three crowd-filled days in Denmark, tonight is the first time the 2022 Tour starts weaving its way through France. Oh là là! C’est génial! Bienvenue en France! (Wowww! Awesome! Welcome to France!)
Look forward to proud crowds and stunning visuals from northern France. The peloton, and the whole travelling circus that makes the Tour de France such a grand spectacle (a big show), will make their way from near the border with Belgium, through the Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Natural Park and along the stunning coastline to compete - and complete - Stage 4 of the Tour.
2. Climb, breathe, repeat
Tonight’s profile, which never reaches higher than 199m, doesn’t look like much on paper when compared to bigger mountains to come. But with several short, steep climbs coming one after the other, it will take a versatile rider to stay at the front of the race.
3. Will a breakaway win this stage or will it come down to a sprint?
Will the climbs take the punch out of the sprinters’ legs? Will their teams be able to control the race when the roads get narrow and repeated, hilly efforts start to add up? Will a breakaway stay away? And if it does, will a small but mighty group stick together? Or will the stage be won by a gutsy solo attack?
The only thing we know right now is that we don’t know at all. But that’s what makes racing so nail-bitingly fun, right?!
4. The final uphill effort with 10.8kms to go
The Côte du Cap Blanc-Nez will provide one final, crucial test before the finish line. It’s 900m long, with a solid average gradient of 7.5 per cent. Riders will then descend back to sea level and give it everything they have in the final eight kilometres of the stage.
Hold onto your #TourSnacks. If there are bridgeable gaps between riders in front, and riders who wish they were in front, these last few kilometres will make for tense and exciting racing.
5. Could this be the stage where Wout van Aert gets to celebrate a much-anticipated win?
Apart from effectively saying in point 3 that it’s impossible to predict who will win Stage 4, Wout van Art (Jumbo-Visma) has to be a firm favourite.
The yellow jersey wearer has come second in every stage so far. While enviable to many, van Aert conceded after Stage 3 that the repeated narrow misses are "not so much fun anymore." His versatility as a rider, and extra drive to win in yellow, make him well suited to unique demands of tonight's stage.
That said, the top 30 riders on the General Classification are only separated by a minute, and all of the GC hopefuls will be wanting to arrive at Stage 5’s unpredictable cobbled sections with as many spare seconds up their aerodynamic Lycra sleeves as they can get. Whoever claims the win tonight will have certainly earned it!
Tune in tonight for Stage 4 from 9.05 pm AEST on the SBS ŠKODA Tour Tracker, with SBS television and SBS On Demand coverage starting at 9.30 pm AEST.
