Eventually, the North’s cobblestones did not cause much damage this Friday on stage four of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque. Towards Pont-à-Marcq, a man from the break narrowly resisted the sprinters to claim victory, while Sam Watson showed himself in the different sectors of the final, and even broke away from the peloton for a few minutes. Paul Penhoët got eleventh place, while the traditional circuit in Cassel should establish the general classification on Saturday.
Unlike the first three days, the fight for the breakaway proved to be more intense from Mazingarbe this Friday, surely due to the fifteen kilometres of cobblestones planned later in the day. An hour was necessary to finally see six men take the lead: Warre Vangheluwe, Alexis Gougeard, Axel Narbonne Zuccarelli, Samuel Leroux, Simon Sajnok and Tomas Kopecky. However, the peloton did not ease off too much, which led to a very dynamic race. “It was a pretty hectic day,” commented Sam Watson. “It was almost full gas all the stage, it was pretty nervous, but I like these races.” After some 80 kilometres, the riders reached the Pont-à-Marcq circuit to be covered four times and including three cobbled sectors. After two loops, meaning forty kilometres from the finish, the pack was still almost complete, and just one minute behind the breakaway. The selection was slowly made from behind in the final. “There was no wind, and above all not enough teams or riders were interested in making it hard,” explained Thierry Bricaud. “A lot of teams wanted a group finish, and no one wanted to take any risks. The sectors weren’t the hardest either. On Roubaix, the fatigue and the length of the sectors make the difference. Sure, there were around fifteen kilometres in total, but the sectors were not very long, and it did not cause major damage.”
“It’s promising for the next days”, Sam Watson
The peloton was still quite big starting the final lap, fifty seconds behind the breakaway. In the last sectors, the pace increased, several riders were dropped, but the fugitives kept a lead of twenty seconds. In the meantime, Sam Watson managed to follow a move in the last sector, eight kilometres from the line. “It all came down to the last lap, I made sure I was in the right place coming to the final few sectors, then I just followed,” explained the British rider. “Four of us were on the front, and it looked like it could potentially go to the finish. It’s a shame two of them crashed in a corner because it was then 7k headwind to the finish.” Together with Thomas Gachignard, Sam Watson still kept pushing until he was caught by a small bunch of thirty riders 2500 metres from the finish. “With the four of us, it could have been a little different, but it’s promising for the next days,” he said. “It didn’t work, but it gives him confidence for tomorrow,” added Thierry Bricaud. In the lead, the fugitives could enter the last kilometre with a small margin and Warre Vangheluwe was even able to hold off the sprinters for a few millimetres. Paul Penhoët took eleventh place. “He was a little far back when the sprint started, and his legs must have felt heavy also as he’s just returning to racing,” added Thierry. “He’s there but he’s missing a little something.”
The French sprinter is still the best rider of the team in GC, in fifth position twenty-four seconds behind leader Sam Bennett, while Sam Watson is thirty seconds behind prior to the “queen” stage in Cassel. “The overall will be decided tomorrow,” said Thierry. “We must be attentive at the start, then it will be a fight between the strongest in Cassel. This is not an extremely hard stage, but it is quite difficult if you are not a good enough climber. It’s a course for strong riders, Sam is one of them, now we’ll need to race smart to achieve a good GC and why not a stage win. Paul will try to hang on. If there is hard racing, it might be too difficult, otherwise, anything is possible.”
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