France’s Coquard wins Stage 4 as Jany leads Tour Down Under 

French cyclist Bryan Coquard won Stage 4 of the Tour Down Under for his first-ever World Tour win, while Australia’s Jay Vine retained the overall tour lead by 15 seconds with one stage remaining

Coquard is a lightweight sprinter who has had 49 wins in a decade-long career but had never won on the World Tour until he cleared out near the finish to claim the 82-mile stage by a margin of about just over 100 feet.

Vine was among the leading group that shared Coquard’s winning time and who retained his lead on general classification over Britain’s Simon Yates and Germany’s Phil Bauhaus. The race concludes with Stage 5, which ends atop 2,329-foot Mount Lofty.

“It’s a long time that I’ve waited for this win, 10 years,” said Coquard, who rides for the French Cofidis team. “I never really expected and I’m very happy and relieved with this win.”

While the stage was flat and suited sprinters, it had its challenges. Cross-winds and occasional gradients made the stage difficult and confounded some riders.

After an early breakaway by Jonas Rutsch and former tour winner Daryl Impey of South Africa, the peloton broke into two groups with Vine and other tour leaders among the leading group.

The leading group stayed together around the last, sharp bend towards the finish and Coquard bided his time until his late sprint left other riders flat-footed.

“It was pretty stressful,” Vine said. “There was one point there, I thought we were going to have an easy day and I was happy, smiling, waving to families on the side of the road.

“Then, 45 kilometers in it was on and it was on until the end so it was a very hard day. There was a lot more calorie expenditure than I was planning.”

VIDEO: 2023 Tour Down Under Stage 4 Highlights

2023 Tour Down Under Stage 4 Top 10

1 FRA Bryan Coquard Cofidis 02:53:41
2 ITA Alberto Bettiol EF Education-EasyPost + 00
3 FRA Hugo Page Intermarché-Circus-Wanty + 00
4 FRA Paul Penhoët Groupama-FDJ + 00
5 NZL Corbin Strong Israel-Premier Tech + 00
6 AUS Michael Matthews Team Jayco-AlUla + 00
7 FRA Dorian Godon AG2R Citroën Team + 00
8 GER Marius Mayrhofer Team DSM + 00
9 GER Kim Heiduk INEOS Grenadiers + 00
10 AUS Caleb Ewan Australia + 00