Freddy Ovett (Israel Start-Up Nation) claimed victory on stage 4 of the men’s Virtual Tour de France, sprinting clear from a select group of eight riders at the end of 48.5 undulating kilometres of racing. Nick Schultz (Mitchelton-Scott) finished second, with Michael Valgren (NTT Pro Cycling) rounding out the podium.
With two riders in the lead group, which formed on the final climb with 5km to go, NTT extended their lead at the top of the general classification, keeping the yellow jersey through to next weekend.
Ovett, who won a stage of the Zwift Tour for All in May, rode an aggressive race, attacking on the new ‘Casse-Pattes’ circuit’s main climb of the ‘Petit KOM’, a 2.7km ascent with an average gradient of 4 per cent. It was followed by a short descent and a flat final kilometre, by which point he had only seven riders for company.
Trek-Segafredo’s Will Clarke looked to have stolen a march through the final bend but Ovett came roaring through and won by a considerable distance.
“It means a lot. Everyone knows I enjoy Zwifting and I was close last weekend,” he said, referring to when he was edged out by stage 2 winner Julien Bernard.
“This is probably my last Zwift race for a while. I’ve got to go back out onto the roads and do some real racing, so no more power-ups and back to reality.”
In the overall standings, NTT Pro Cycling extended their lead to a whopping 75 points. Rally Cycling moved up into second place on 188 points, with Trek-Segafredo now third on 162.
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NTT Pro Cycling also kept hold of the green jersey, using the intermediate sprints to move to 188 points, way ahead of Mitchelton-Scott on 96 and CCC Team on 81. The South African team don’t have the polka-dot jersey, however, with Israel Start-Up Nation extending their lead in the mountains classification, moving to 28 points, 11 ahead of Alpecin-Fenix and 18 ahead of EF Pro Cycling and Cofidis.
The virtual Tour de France continues and concludes next weekend with a stage on Mont Ventoux on Saturday followed by the finale on the Champs Elysees.
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