Tour de France 2021: race resumes after riders protest on stage four – live!

52km to go: I have really looked for something interesting to say about La Bouëxière. Really I have. I have failed. They passed it 5km ago, and I’m empty-handed.

58km to go: The front two still lead by a little under two minutes, and James Cavell’s emailed again. “Bikenut is right to assign some blame to DSs,” he writes, “but telling them to slow down will never work (opportunists will attack) and a slower peloton is often more dangerous, as more riders move to the front. Congestion increases as the bunch slows. When I was racing, a peloton felt safer when one or two teams were keeping the speed high enough to stop the front becoming congested, but not so fast that guys were falling in corners. A sort of ‘skinny diamond’ shape felt the best. Moments when the speed suddenly dropped were scary, as riders would move up around the edges, using verges and pavements if necessary.”

69km to go: The leaders will soon reach Liffré, which sounds like a portmanteau for Labi Siffre. Why you’d want to combine the words Labbi and Siffre I’m not sure. I suppose it’s like Bennifer, or Brangelina, though a close relationship between Labi and Siffre can probably be assumed, being as they are the same person. Anyway, is this the best Liffre song?

75km to go: Speed is increasing, and the leaders’ lead is decreasing: down now to 1min 35sec.

92km to go: The leaders have now passed Janzé, home of the Janzé Black Chicken, which has IGP status. It ranks No2 in the list of Breton animals published by the Rennes tourist office, behind the Coucou de Rennes chicken, “a delicious free-range chicken with a delicious nutty taste”. Apparently the Janze black is particularly good at gobbling up problem insects, including the Asian hornets that blight Le Sel-de-Bretagne. It’s not an entirely chicken-focused list: the No3 animal is a horse, No4 is a cow, while there’s a goat at No5, a sheep at No6 and a pig at No7.

“I think the DSs have to take responsibility for yesterday’s carnage,” says someone who styles himself Bikenut. “It’s no good saying the race organisers have to take the rap. The DS tells the team what to do; if they said slow the race down because I don’t want any of you to get hurt then the race would slow down. If they are saying push push push when the roads don’t allow it then crashes will happen. I think it’s appalling they are trying to blame someone else. They are the ones controlling the way the race is ridden. I agree with the earlier comments about every domestique trying to be with their leader. I also think it’s totally counter productive to have every GC team trying to get to the front in the final so they’re ‘safe’ until 3km. Why? It creates crashes, and again the DS is to blame.”

100km to go: We are a third of the way through today’s stage. It has not been enormously dramatic thus far, which given yesterday’s chaos isn’t entirely unwelcome. There is an intermediate sprint 36km from the finish, and when they are approaching that things might start to get a little spicy.

110km to go: A couple of responses to James Cavell’s email (scroll down a bit) as Périchon and Van Moer continue at the front with a lead just short of three minutes:

“James Cavell speaks sense,” says Guy Hornsby. “It feels so congested at the front in days like this. Once one team is all up there it’s all in, so it’s no surprise crashes happen. But yesterday was brutal. Some of the roads seemed dicing with danger. The riders should call it out.”

“I agree it’s largely the GC teams massing near the front since the 3km rule but teams en bloc riding is also due to having the DS yelling over the radio every 2 mins to get to the front,” writes Jonathan Martin. “Getting rid of radios will give safer, less formulaic races.”

115km to go: The front pair lead by nearly three minutes. Le Sel-de-Bretagne, which is just a few kilometres away now, is home to the Musee Eugene Aulnette, which “pays homage to a local historical figure who was a multi-faceted sculptor and an environmentally-friendly pioneer.” The town’s website also has a page about “the fight against the Asian hornet”.

126km to go: The peloton aren’t even slightly bothered about the two-man breakaway, which now leads by 2min 30sec.

135km to go: Pierre-Luic Périchon has joined Van Moer at the front, and the pair of them have headed off on their own.

139km to go: The stage has finally got under way. Brent van Moer of Lotto Soudal is the early leader.

143km to go: Still waiting for a race to break out. Consensus seems to be that the protest was a bit rubbish, because it wasn’t led by the right people and didn’t appear to be enthusiastically backed by all the riders. However, rider safety is very much the subject du jour. Talking of which, here’s an email from James Cavell:

Riders, especially the GC riders, often complain that too many riders are trying to ride at the front. They suggest that too many guys are ‘fresh’ and looking for a good GC position, but from my vantage point most of the riders at the front seem to be the entire squads of the top GC teams.

Why exactly do the likes of Thomas and Roglic need their entire squads riding shotgun to keep them out of trouble? If every GC team does the same, congestion remains a dangerous issue. Then, when the sprint trains try to bring up the fastmen, the front of the race seems to become the most dangerous place.

Is it not an option for the protected riders to be helped to stay at the front by fewer domestiques? (Shameless self promotion upcoming) I rode a season or two at elite category in the Low Countries and plenty of strong riders were adept at keeping up at the front without an entire team to protect them. Some were able to work alone, with domestiques such as myself lagging well behind.

Contrary to recent Tours, the front was by far the safest place to ride, although I rarely experienced the pointy end myself!

148km to go: Greipel remains at the front of the peloton, controlling it’s speed. Which is slow.

149.3km t0 g0: After a couple of minutes, they are back under way.

149.5km to go: Andre Greipel manoeuvres himself to the front of the peloton, and makes sure everybody stops, and stop they do.

The rollout is well under way, and now just a kilometre or so from the official start.

The last big event that happened in Redon, just a couple of weeks back, was not so welcome:

A protest has apparently been planned for the start of today’s stage: word is that at the start of the stage proper riders will briefly dismount, and will then ride the first 10km of the stage at a deliberately slow pace. We’ll see what actually happens when it actually happens.

The CPA, aka Cyclistes Professionnels Associés, the professional cyclists’ union, has issued the following statement about yesterday’s carnage:

Following the crashes during the third stage of the Tour de France, the riders have been discussing how they wish to proceed to show their dissatisfaction with safety measures in place and demand their concerns are taken seriously. Their frustration about foreseeable and preventable action is enormous.

The riders wish to stress their respect for their sponsors, their sports groups, the organiser, their international institution. Supporters are very important to them – and this is why they will be riding today.

In return, the riders of the Tour de France ask for the same respect – respect for their safety.

For this reason they are asking the UCI to set up discussions with all race stakeholders to adapt the 3 km rule during stage races. This could avoid circumstances such as those which occurred in yesterday’s stage.

Through this course of action, the riders intend to show their understanding to all parties and to open up to a constructive dialogue rather than create difficulties for cycling and the fans. However, riders and CPA are determined to pursue changes for the safety and physical integrity of athletes. These changes are more necessary than ever.

This is Fougères, the ludicrously picturesque Brittany town where today’s stage ends. Redon, where it starts, is smaller and less touristed but the town centre looks lovely, with a canal running through it – the town has a museum, the Musee de la Batellerie, dedicated to its place in the nation’s canal system.

Here’s Jeremy Whittle’s report on yesterday’s stage three, when “all hell broke loose”:

All hell broke loose in the Tour de France as overall favourites and sprint contenders both hit the tarmac in a chaotic climax to the third stage, won in Pontivy by Tim Merlier, a fast-rising Belgian sprinter.

The defending champion, Tadej Pogacar, the 2018 winner, Geraint Thomas, the 2020 runner-up, Primoz Roglic, the Australian star Jack Haig and the sprinters Caleb Ewan, Peter Sagan and Arnaud Démare were among the many high-profile casualties on a day when the peloton tackled narrow winding roads on the fast approach to the finish.

As the 183km stage was won by Merlier of Alpecin-Fenix, a teammate to the overall race leader, Mathieu van der Poel, Sagan and Ewan crashed hard on the final bend with the stricken Australian sprinter lying on the tarmac as others rode around him. Ewan, winner of five stages in past Tours, was later forced to abandon the race with a broken collarbone.

Much more here:

The Tour puts yesterday’s “deplorable” unintended chaos behind it with a stage that might just induce some admirable, predictable chaos. It’s the third shortest full stage of this year’s tour, and while the two shorter both have hors catégorie climbs, this one is flatter than the critical reception for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. Here’s what Will Fotheringham had to say about it in his full print-out-and-keep guide to this season’s Tour:

Stage four, Redon – Fougères 150.4km

The race ventures towards Normandy but stops just short of the border at another town with cycling history, home of the late Albert Bouvet, the legendary “Bulldog”, who became a mainstay of the group that organises the Tour. By now the daily pattern will have been set: an early break of a handful of riders from the lesser French teams, scooped up in time for a bunch sprint finish. Along with Ewan, other favourites include the evergreen Peter Sagan, France’s Arnaud Démare, Tim Merlier of Belgium, the Norwegian Alexandr Kristoff and perhaps the Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni.