Mathieu van der Poel holds yellow after fierce battle on Tour de France stage 4
The Dutchman is known for his ability to push himself to the limit beyond comprehension, and stage 4 of the Tour de France was the perfect illustration of that.
A most dramatic finish by any metric, the final showdown on stage 4 of the Tour de France is likely to live long in the memory and was a perfect illustration of all things exciting about this current generation of riders. It was a staggering finale, and it demonstrated the top form of the major contenders at this race.
The main actor in all of this, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), marked 100 professional victories as he powered his way to victory in an excruciatingly painful-looking uphill sprint in Rouen, in an eight-man group featuring the world's best.
The race leader, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) fought tooth and nail to defend the yellow jersey, which he claimed alongside victory on stage 2. Despite missing out on a second stage win here, finishing second behind Pogačar, the Dutchman still leads the Tour on countback to the world champion. He acknowledged that he had to dig to the deepest reserves in order to do so.
“It’s difficult to describe, but my legs were… it was really painful," Van der Poel explained to reporters after the finish in Rouen.
"I was happy to be there, yeah, but also sa little bit disappointed. I would’ve really loved to have won a stage in the yellow jersey, but I think losing to Tadej is no shame."
Van der Poel was the first to launch his sprint, but he was unable to hold off a rampant Pogačar, who came past the Dutchman to take his 18th Tour de France stage win and 100th professional victory. However, Van der Poel insisted he had no regrets with how the stage went as he pushed himself right to the very limit, returning to the front of the race after Pogačar and Vingegaard surged clear.
“He was the strongest today, he showed this on the climb, and yeah, I had a bit of hope, but when I launched my sprint, the hope was gone," Van der Poel said.
After his brilliant efforts over the first four days of racing, Van der Poel now finds himself in yellow ahead of the upcoming 33km individual time trial on stage five, but is realistic about his chances of keeping yellow as he currently sits on the same time in the general classification as Pogačar and only eight seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) who finished third in the sprint finish on stage 4. Remco Evenepoel, the favourite for the time trial, sits ninth in the GC at 58 seconds behind his good friend Van der Poel.
“Yeah, for sure, there’s a big chance I will lose it, but I’m happy to keep it one more day," Van der Poel concluded.
