Bonjour!  Stage 4 saw the Tour move through a relatively flat but pretty landscape crossing the Moselle valley. Harvest seems to be in full swing here, with ochre fields full of wheat. The race saw a great breakaway with Michael Schär (CCC), Frederik Backaert and Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) taking the stage on at the beginning. Schär went on to win the Combative ride of the stage, which was well-deserved. The final sprint was a very close one – the cameras were on Sagan but it was Elio Viviani, helped by the Yellow Jersey to position him right on the edge to storm past the rest to achieve his first Tour de France stage win. Great stuff!

Here are my pictures… click on an image to see it full size.

Study sketches – peloton

Stage 4 – Michael Schär – study

Stage 4 – Flexing his muscles – Michael Schär

Stage 4 – Waiting to start

Stage 4 – Elia Viviani on the edge!

Click on an image to see in full – Medium and measurements are listed below. Click here if you wish to enquire further

All images copyright Maxine Dodd.

For in-depth race analysis, delivered with fun and wit, I highly recommend ‘Velovoices’ but don’t forget to come back to ‘Racing Lines’ for the pictures!

Have a great day! 🙂