Michael Woods, the GC hope for Israel Start-up Nation, got caught up in the second crash of Stage 1, losing nearly 9 minutes on the leaders. In Stage 3, he came home another 2 minutes adrift, leading to his arrival at the fulcrum position by the end of Stage 4 of the 2021 Tour de France.

Woods said after the end of the stage that the peloton was united in a desire for safer races. He told Cyclingnews: “I think more can be done and I think we need to be united in the future and take a bigger stance. … I think we need to be more united and more courageous and take bigger stands in the future.”

Just outside Redon, the riders staged a ‘sit-on,’ coming nearly to a stop near the start to protest the dangerous crashes through the early part of the race.

The Lotto Soudal rider Caleb Ewan, who went down hard at the end of Stage 3, did not start Stage 4, leaving 177 riders in the race.

Among them was the surprise winner of the stage, Mark Cavendish, the comeback quid. It was his first Tour de France win since the days when Donald Trump was still mostly known as a failure at building casinos, publicizing his college and giving to charities.

Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Fenix remains in the yellow jersey, and Amund Grøndahl Jansen of Team BikeExchange is the new Lanterne Rouge of the race, almost 36 minutes behind the leaders.