Wout van Aert takes aggressive solo win in yellow at Tour de France stage four

Wout van Aert has won the fourth stage of the Tour de France in amazing fashion, a solo win wearing the yellow jersey for Jumbo-Visma after an explosive attack in the final hilltop that led to an incredibly popular win.

The breakaway consisted only of two riders as the Pro Continental teams once again had no urge to go onto the front. KOM jersey holder Magnus Cort Nielsen went on to go get more points towards the classification, joined today by Cofidis' Anthony Perez. It was a calm day, despite occasional strong gusts of wind.

The Frenchman went solo with 42 kilometers to go and was caught at the base of the final climb. Although very short, it was a very sharp effort. In similarity to Paris-Nice's raid, Jumbo-Visma entered the climb in front and sprinted from top to bottom, blowing up the peloton completely. Not even Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard could keep up, Wout van Aert launched a move over the top and went solo with the peloton in bits behind - with the GC riders seeing gaps between them, and some sprinters dropped definitively.

With the difficulty in organizing a strong chase van Aert quickly built up a lead. The peloton bunched up again after the climb, however the Belgian proved incredibly hard to chase. Van Aert powered through the final flat kilometers and took a stage win that will be remembered for years to come.

He has also extended his race lead. Jasper Philipsen sprinted to second place - celebrating in vain - as Christophe Laporte finished in third place.