Although the time difference was relatively small from an overall perspective, several climbers and GC contenders still lost time on stage 4, the first summit finish of the Tour de France.

Most notable was Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), the German who finished fourth in last year's Tour de France, losing 9 seconds with a bonus to stage winner and rival Primoš Roglic (Jumbo-Visma).

Buchmann, who entered the Tour with his participation in this year's Tour in jeopardy due to a crash at the Criterium du Dauphiné, was supposed to match his rivals' pace on the shallow slopes of the Orcières-Mellette. He finished 17th, just ahead of Movistar's Hope and Enric Mas.

"I felt okay until 1.5 km to go, then they started going really fast.

"Then I couldn't keep up. I'm not in pain anymore and it's getting better and better. I'm not 100% right now, but I think I'll be better the next day. There is still a long way to go to Paris and a lot of mountain stages."

Richard Carapace, who was touted as a GC contender along with defending champion Egan Bernal, was 28 seconds behind the 16-man lead group. Rigoberto Urán managed to keep pace with EF Pro Cycling, but the same could not be said for Sergio Iguita, who finished in the same group as Calapaz, and his EF Pro Cycling teammate Dani Martínez.

As for the remaining GC contenders, Tadei Pogachar, Nairo Quintana, Thibaut Pinot, Miguel Angel Lopez, Bauke Mollema, Richie Porte, Tom Dumoulin, and Bernal all finished in the same time as Roglic.

The Slovenian is now in third place overall, seven seconds out of Julian Alaphilippe's lead.

Bernal is still in sixth place overall, 17 seconds behind the leader, despite a moment of weakness as he was unable to keep up with Roglic's acceleration. The Colombian is now looking ahead to the final week.

"It was a really fast, short climb that finally packed a punch, a good climb to see how the GC riders are. It was really hard, so it was nice to arrive with them."

"It's not good to have the other GC riders a few seconds ahead of you, but I think the best scenario is to be patient, arrive in week 3 without losing too much time, and recover your time on the long climb. We want to come into the final week as fresh as possible."