Although the stage win went to Jumbo-Visma teammate Primoz Roglic, who did not close the time gap to his overall rivals, Tom Dumoulin expressed disappointment with his performance on stage 4 of the Tour de France at Orcières-Mellette.

The Dutchman finished 11th on the stage in a 16-man group that arrived at the summit in the same time as Roglic, including yellow jersey Julien Alaphilippe (Detusink-Quickstep) and defending champion Eoghan Bernal (Ineos).

"I was just not in good shape. It was between hanging and strangling. I was just trying to keep up," Dumoulin told NOS (open in new tab) after the race. That's not why I came to the Tour. I want to be better than this. I wasn't very good today.

"It's a great day for the team, but as for me, I'm like, 'Oh, I expected more.'"

Dumoulin underwent knee surgery after crashing at the Giro d'Italia, missed last year's Tour de France, and a coronavirus outbreak interrupted his 2020 season, keeping him out of racing for more than a year, 420 days to be exact, before returning to competition at the Tour de Ain in August. He was away from racing for more than a year, more than 420 days to be exact.

Despite the long layoff, Dumoulin finished 11th overall in the Tour de l'Ain and 7th in the Criterium du Dauphiné, and was one of Jumbo Visma's two protected riders to compete in the Tour along with Roglic.

Jumbo-Visma's depth of riders was also evident on Tuesday's final leg to Orcières-Merrette. Wout Van Aert and Sepp Kuss played a key role in shaving the lead peloton on the first categorized mountain, and then Logrich won the sprint on the summit ahead of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis).

Roglic was forced to abandon the Dauphiné while leading the race due to a crash on the final stage, but Dumoulin admitted he was worried about the Slovenian's injury during the final Tour race in Jambovisma in Tignes last week.

"Before the Tour, in Tignes, I was still thinking:" Dumoulin said. 'But he's already shown what he can do here. I told Sepp and Wout, 'Hang in there until the end. As for Wout, we had already seen what he could do at the Dauphiné.

Van Aert explained after the race that he did not expect to play such an important role in the first summit finish, but that he had to fill in for George Bennett.

According to Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab), "There was no agreement that I would go that long with him," Van Aert said. "Bennett and Kuss were going to assist the leaders on the uphill, and I was at the front at the beginning of the climb. Those two guys always struggle for position, and it was not a good idea to leave Primosch and Tom alone. Kusu came, but I didn't see him at first. So I decided to stay with Tom and Primosch."

In the overall standings, Dumoulin is in seventh place overall, 17 seconds behind Alaphilippe in the yellow jersey and 10 seconds behind teammate Roglic, and it will be Mont Aigoual on stage 6 that will test the GC contenders' mettle.