Just as doubts started to creep in about Wout van Aert's form for the upcoming Tour de France, he steadied the ship by winning the sprint from the bunch on stage 4 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The only problem, though, was that 10 riders from the day's breakaway had finished four seconds before him and taken the stage victory.
But after early struggles on stages 1 and 3, where he failed to contribute much to Visma's team time trial win, Van Aert could take confidence from his 11th place, enjoying the full commitment from his teammates in the chase, albeit coming up short.
