Christophe Laporte couldn't help Wout Van Aert in stage 4: "We didn't find each other and he wasn't in a good position for the sprint"

Christophe Laporte could not help Wout Van Aert in a hectic sprint of Tour de France stage 4. The Belgian eventually sprinted to ninth place on the Nogaro car circuit.

The last kilometers on the car track were marred by several crashes, not only in the corners, but also in the final straight. "I didn't see the crashes, but we went very fast," Laporte told Eurosport afterwards.

"It was an easy day, so everyone was still very fresh," Laporte explains the lightning-fast final. "It was very nervous. The road was good, but it was still tricky. Such corners are dangerous in a bunch sprint."

In the end, Laporte could not find his leader Van Aert at his rear wheel. "We wanted to try, but we didn't find each other and he wasn't in a good position for the sprint," the Frenchman concluded.