Tour de France 2019: Stage 4 Route, Distance, Live Stream and TV Schedule

Deceuninck-QuickStep rider Julian Alaphilippe will be hoping to pad his advantage in the general classification at the 2019 Tour de France when the race enters its fourth stage on Tuesday.

The stage should favour the sprinters, with plenty of flat terrain for riders to attack after the hills of Binche and Epernay. It's a chance for defending champion Geraint Thomas to make up some of the time and ground he lost on Monday.

Date: Tuesday, July 9

Time: 11.20 a.m. local, 10.20 a.m. BST, 5.20 a.m. ET

Route: Reims to Nancy, France (213.5 kilometres)

TV: Eurosport 1, ITV 4, NBC

Stream: Eurosport Player, ITV Hub, NBC Sports

Thomas will look to stay in the mix ahead of an appealing final straight. The Welshman chose to preserve energy during the third stage, particularly when it came to attacking the climb at Cote de Mutigny.

While Alaphilippe staked his claim to the yellow jersey on this descent, Thomas didn't fancy it, per Gregor Brown of Cycling Weekly: "Obviously that climb where Alaphilippe went was steep and it was hard, but I just knew I didn't have the legs to go for the bonus sprint, or at least if I had tried, it would've been 100 per cent maximum effort and I wasn't keen for that."

Having something in reserve will be a benefit when the riders engage in what will likely be a bunch sprint as they enter Nancy.

Ironically, Thomas' biggest threat may come from fellow Team Ineos rider Egan Bernal. The Colombian left his more decorated team-mate trailing when the competitors began the uphill sprint to the finish in Epernay.

It was a 500-metre stretch, one kilometre less than the final straight at Nancy. Crucially, though, this sprint will be on a flat, accommodating surface, one riders should be fresh for after tackling just two climbs, both of them manageable, before it.

The course could favour the younger Bernal. Still just 22, he is the "man in form at the moment," according to Sir Bradley Wiggins, who told Alex Terrell of The Sun how both could clash during the sixth stage: "I can't wait to see it. If they both get there on zero time to each other, no time losses, no more crashes in the next few days, it's going to be really interesting."

ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/Getty Images

Bernal leads Thomas by five seconds, but they will need to up their speeds in key moments to keep pace with Alaphilippe's team-mate, Elia Viviani. The latter is proficient on the sprints, as is tour veteran Peter Sagan, who is back wearing the green jersey, an honour he is hoping to win for the seventh time.

Any true sprinter will savour this stage, even though Cycling News believes those vying for the yellow jersey won't make their moves ahead of the last three kilometres.

Such a strategy would guarantee a dramatic finish on a course offering relief to riders ahead of more challenging uphill climbs to follow.