Twelve Seconds: Baudin and EF Roll Yellow Into Stage 4 at Montrond-les-Bains

Stage 4 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes rolled out of Le Puy-en-Velay this afternoon carrying the race's central tension in its original form: Alex Baudin's yellow jersey and the question of whether a 25-year-old Frenchman from EF Education-EasyPost can hold on through a field of Tour de France climbers as the roads get harder.

The margin going into today is twelve seconds. That is what separates Baudin from Kévin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley in second and third, both riding for Netcompany INEOS Cycling Team, both close enough that a single well-timed acceleration on any categorised climb could reverse the standings. Fifteen seconds to Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike). Forty-seven seconds to Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). After four stages and a team time trial, those gaps are meaningful without being decisive — the race's mountain days are still ahead.

How the Yellow Got Here

Stage 1 (Vizille → Saint-Ismier, June 7) announced itself as one of the week's stories within the first hour. Baudin had arrived at the race with food poisoning — reportedly spending the night before Stage 1 unable to eat or rest normally — and answered by going on the attack from a breakaway on the Côte de Rousset with around thirty kilometres left. He crested the climb alone, stayed alone across the descending roads, and won the stage. "The stars aligned for me today," he said. Oscar Onley, his EF team-mate, also took time over the GC favourites in the finale — EF had sent two riders into the race with clear intent, and Stage 1 made that intent visible.

Stage 2 (Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux → Le Puy-en-Velay, 234.3km, June 8) was the race's longest stage, a traverse of the Massif Central that the forecasters and the race preview writers called a day for the breakaway. They were right. Anthon Charmig (Uno-X Mobility) timed his move on the day's final categorised climb to perfection and arrived at Le Puy-en-Velay with a stage win. The GC field managed their effort, nobody attacked yellow, and Baudin kept his lead without complication.

Stage 3 (Perreux team time trial, June 9) rewrote the GC. Visma | Lease a Bike won the 28.4-kilometre circuit despite mid-effort difficulties from Wout van Aert and Ben Tulett — a statement about the team's depth when Jorgenson and the remaining riders absorbed those losses and still clocked the fastest time. EF Education-EasyPost went last off, managed their effort, and crossed the line with Baudin's lead cut from thirty-two seconds to twelve. Vauquelin and Onley moved into second and third. Jorgenson came to fifteen. The race had been compressed but not reversed.

Stage 4: The Day's Shape

Stage 4 is a transition stage in the conventional sense — it precedes the mountain days and gives the peloton a relatively controlled day before the real test arrives — but the terrain doesn't read entirely flat. Six categorised climbs sit in the opening 110 kilometres: the Col de la Croix de l'Arbre rises almost immediately from the neutral zone, followed by a series of third- and second-category ascents through the volcanic Haute-Loire plateau before the road commits to the descent into the Forez corridor.

After kilometre 110, the profile levels and runs flat toward Montrond-les-Bains in the Loire plain below. A northerly headwind was forecast through the mid-afternoon, complicating breakaway formation in the climbing sector. The final eleven kilometres turn into a direct tailwind — opening a window for late attackers with a gap already established, or a compressed sprint among whoever survives the early climbs together.

The typical outcome for a day like this: a breakaway goes early, the peloton controls the gap, and the stage comes down to a sprint among a reduced group or a late attacker who has read the wind correctly. The GC teams want another transitional day before Stage 5. The stage hunters want to be in the right move at the right moment.

Stage 5 brings the race's first summit finish. Whatever gap Baudin carries out of Montrond-les-Bains tonight is what Jorgenson, Vauquelin, Ayuso, and Onley will measure themselves against when the road goes upward.

Paul Seixas — 19 years old, Decathlon-CMA CGM, confirmed Tour de France debutant in July, winner of both Flèche Wallonne and Itzulia Basque Country this spring — sits further back in the overall standings but has the climbing profile to animate the mountain days regardless of where he stands on GC. Stage 5 is where the race's real conversation starts.

For the cycling roads Stage 4 traces — the volcanic Forez corridor and the Loire plain around Montrond-les-Bains — see our Forez cycling destination guide. For yesterday's Stage 3 TTT coverage, see our Stage 3 field report.