Tour de France stage four predictions and betting tips: Pidcock's descending skills to come to the fore

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Tom Pidcock to win stage four
1pt 14-1 bet365

Tour de France stage four predictions

After a brutal opening weekend, the sprinters got their chance on stage three of the Tour de France and Biniam Girmay made history.

The Eritrean became the first black African rider to win a Tour stage, edging Fernando Gaviria and Arnaud De Lie in the bunch sprint in Turin.

Stage four features more punishment for the speedsters as the Tour leaves Italy and heads into the French Alps, with the riders racing from Pinerolo to Valloire.

The opening 50km are uphill and there are three categorised climbs along the 139.6km route. The last one is the stage’s centrepiece – the gargantuan Col du Galibier – before a 20km run down to the finish and is a chance for the big guns to test each other out.

After allaying some of the pre-race doubts over his fitness with a decent ride on Sunday, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard could look to challenge Tadej Pogacar, who lost the leader’s jersey to Richard Carapaz on Monday.

Those tactics may see Vinge­gaard and Pogacar mark each other out of the race, and Tom Pidcock is the type of rider to take advantage.

The reigning Olympic mountain biking champion is arguably the best descender in the bunch and could succeed in the Savoie.

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