More than 1,000 days after his last victory, Thibaut Pinot came very close to finding the path to success this Thursday on the 4th stage of the Tour des Alpes. Member of the breakaway of the day, the Franc-Comtois outdistanced all his rivals in the final climb, but he could not resist the return of Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Qazaqstan Team), out of the peloton and who resumed then dropped the Groupama-FDJ rider 1 kilometer from the finish. Behind, it was the leaders of the general classification who fought for third place, and it was Romain Bardet (Team DSM) who was the fastest ahead of Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious). Thanks to the 4 seconds of bonuses pocketed, the Frenchman is 2 seconds behind the Spaniard overall before the last stage on Friday. Third, the Hungarian Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) is 12 seconds behind.Video – Thibaut Pinot, his ambitions… 1006 days without a win! “It sucks because it would have done me good (…) I could have turned this shitty page and moved on”�’� The emotion of Thibaut Pinot after his 2nd place on the 4th stage of the Tour des Alpes #lequipeVELO pic.twitter.com/F1QT0o2tnV — the chain L’Équipe (@lachainelequipe) April 21, 2022 Thibaut Pinot did not go far from enjoying the joys of victory… in the last hectometres, the Frenchman had to bow to Miguel Angel Lopez. Follow the Tour of the Alps on Eurosport, the Eurosport app and https://t.co/7qbNJbZqbq #LesRP #TotA pic.twitter.com/ ZezWgKb29H — Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) April 21, 2022 Bouchard scores points in the mountain classification, Bilbao and Bardet go to the ground! After about fifteen kilometers, eleven riders manage to escape from the peloton, including David de la Cruz (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Vinicius Rangel (Movistar Team), Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën Team), Patrick Gamper (BORA-hansgrohe) or again Simone Ravanelli (Drone Hopper-Androni Gioccatoli). In the first ascent of the day, Kartitscher Sattel (7.3 km at 5.9%), the leading group explodes and we find Bouchard, Ravanelli and De la Cruz at the front. But the peloton isn’t far off and eventually catches everyone just after the summit, Bouchard having managed to pass him in the lead, allowing him to virtually regain the lead in the mountain classification from Pavel Sivakov (INEOS Grenadiers). A few kilometers later, a big collective fall occurs within the peloton, in which are notably involved Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Romain Bardet (Team DSM), the first two in the general classification! The Spaniard and the French however recovered quickly and resumed their place in the peloton. Behind, the race comes alive again and this time it is fifteen riders who break away, the breakaway of the day being this time well and truly constituted. A crash in the bunch saw @romainbardet and @marco_brnr involved, but both are back on their bikes and returning to the peloton. We hope everyone else involved is okay! 🤞🠻 #TotA pic.twitter.com/q08nGSHkxe — Team DSM (@TeamDSM) April 21, 2022 The breakaway is forming, Thibaut Pinot in the right shot The composition of the leading group is as follows: Sebastian Henao, Fabio Felline (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Andrey Amador, Ben Swift (INEOS Grenadiers), Nicolas Prodhomme (AG2R Citroën Team), Matteo Fabbro, Anton Palzer (BORA-hansgrohe), Jonathan Caicedo, Merhawi Kudus (EF Education-EasyPost), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Omer Goldstein (Israel-Premier Tech), Abner Gonzalez (Movistar Team), Natnael Tesfatsion (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli), Igor Arrieta (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Unai Iribar (Euskaltel-Euskadi). At 40 kilometers from the finish, and with only the final climb remaining as a difficulty, the breakaway has a 2’10” lead over a peloton led by a rather calm Bahrain Victorious since the best ranked in the he breakaway overall, Natnael Tesfatsion, is almost 4 minutes away. Unfortunately for the leading riders, the Pello Bilbao team then receives the support of Team DSM, who have a desire for a stage victory. 15 terminals from At the finish, a quartet made up of Caicedo, Iribar, Swift and Goldstein came out on top, allowing these riders to tackle the final ascent of Kals am Grossglockner (12.4 km at 4.3%) a few seconds ahead of their pursuers. The peloton is 1’30” behind. Thibaut Pinot lets go of all his opponents, Lopez comes back and deprives Pinot of victory Jonathan Caicedo and Omer Goldstein break away from the collar, then they see the return of Tesfatsion, Arrieta and Pinot. As soon as he returns, the latter attacks in turn and takes Goldstein with him. But the Israeli does not stay long in the wheel of the French, who flies away. In the peloton, 45 seconds behind the leading man, it is the INEOS Grenadiers who are now in charge. Difficult during the first 3 kilometers, the final climb is much smoother thereafter, which can allow the peloton to get organized in order to get back to Thibaut Pinot. Giving everything, the Franc-Comtois resists the peloton well and can dream of this victory which has been fleeing him for almost 3 years. 4 kilometers from the finish, and as the road straightens out a bit, Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Qazaqstan Team) stands up on the pedals. He was notably chased by Pavel Sivakov (INEOS Grenadiers), Mikel Landa, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Romain Bardet (Team DSM), but the latter did not come in on the Colombian, who came back strong on Pinot. The gap is 10 seconds 2 terminals from the goal, then the trend is confirmed and Lopez returns to Pinot just over 1 kilometer from the finish. As expected, the Colombian attacks his rival directly and manages to let go despite strong resistance from Pinot at first. Miguel Angel Lopez then flew to success, Thibaut Pinot taking second place in the stage at 7 seconds. Third place is obtained by Romain Bardet, who takes 4 seconds of bonuses and is dangerously close to Pello Bilbao in the general classification, only 2 seconds now separating the two riders.