Tadej Pogacar powers to 100th career win on Tour de France stage 4

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) sprinted to victory on stage 4 of the Tour de France in Rouen to claim his 100th professional win.

The Slovenian beat yellow jersey Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) to the line on the uphill finishing straight after a breathless finale over some rugged terrain in Normandy.

The front group had already been severely reduced when Pogačar attacked viciously on the final climb of the Rampe-Saint-Hilaire with 5km to go. Vingegaard was the only rider who could follow that acceleration, even if the Dane had to relent slightly before rejoining his rival over the top.

After that show of force, Vingegaard was understandably reluctant to collaborate over the other side, and the pair were caught by a seven-man group featuring Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Van der Poel with 4km remaining.

Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) attempted to slip away in the final kilometre, but he was pinned back by João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) on the uphill drag to the line.

Van der Poel looked the favourite for the sprint, but the Dutchman faded in the final metres and Pogačar came past to claim the spoils.

Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) was an impressive fourth, while Evenepoel conceded three seconds in the final sprint.

Van der Poel retains the overall lead, albeit on the same time as Pogačar, while Vingegaard is third at eight seconds.

“I hope everybody was at the limit,” Pogačar said. “I tried an attack on the last climb and then Jonas followed me and then everything came together. João did such an amazing job to lead me out to the very end, even when people were attacking.

“With so many good riders in such a final, you’re always a bit on the edge and nervous about what can happen. You never know until the final. Like today, you get this adrenaline. It’s pure racing and I enjoy it.”

In the Pogačar-Vingegaard era, every day is a GC day, and a punchy stage like this was always likely to see the Big Two dictate the terms and conditions. That didn’t dissuade a quartet of early attackers from trying to upset the odds on the flat run out of Amiens, with Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious), Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) slipping away in the opening kilometres.

On this day of two distinct parts, the peloton was happy to leave them to it, and they built a lead of two minutes inside the first 15km. That status quo continued through the long, flat run southwest into Normandy, where the race would hit more rugged terrain in the Seine valley in the final 50km.

The pace in the peloton rose on the approach to the first climb, the category 4 Côte Jacques Anquetil, where a nervous crash involving Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) occured. Out in front, the break’s unity began to fragment as they pursued king of the mountain points, and the peloton moved inexorably closer.

An untimely puncture for Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) ahead of the second climb, the Côte de Belbeuf, forced him into a chase that ruined his hope of stage victory. Out in front, meanwhile, the break would fragment, with Martinez just hanging on to the lead over the climb.

The rising tension on the narrow roads led to another crash with 25km to go, with Remco Evenepoel’s teammate Valentin Paret-Peintre among the fallers.

Lenny Martinez’s resistance was snuffed out just before the Côte de Bonsecours, site of Jean Robic’s immortal Tour-winning attack in 1947. There were no attacks on the short climb, but the war of nerves between UAE, Visma and Alpecin-Deceuninck continued apace, as did the winnowing process in the peloton.

UAE took full control over the other side, with Marc Soler lining out the peloton on the run towards the penultimate climb, the Côte de la Grand’Mare, where Pavel Sivakov and then Tim Wellens took up the reins. The damage was considerable, with Ben O’Connor (Jayco-Alula) among those distanced.

Over the other side, however, Visma struck back, with Victor Campenaerts suddenly powering to the front with Vingegaard, Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot and Wout van Aert tucked on his wheel. The Dutch squad’s strength in numbers ensured they would lead all the way to the day’s final ascent, the sharp Rampe Saint-Hilaire, only for UAE to nudge back in front as the ascent began.

After a supersonic lead-out from Jhonatan Narvaez and Almeida, Pogačar unleashed the full fury of his acceleration 300m from the top. Inevitably, only Vingegaard could follow, though even he briefly struggled to match the tempo near the summit.

Behind, Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was among those distanced, losing another 32 seconds by day’s end. Evenepoel, meanwhile, was rather better at limiting his losses. The Belgian sagely followed his own tempo on the climb and then dragged an elite group of chasers back to the Big Two.

In the sprint, however, Pogačar, Van der Poel and Vingegaard were on another plane. Van der Poel retains the yellow jersey, but with a time trial to come on Wednesday in Caen, his hold on the lead is temporary.
Once again, the Tour looks like a Pogačar-Vingegaard duel, and the next instalment in their running battle is Wednesday’s 33km time trial in Caen. “Tomorrow is the real test,” Pogačar said.