photo credits @ Le Tour
Beaten by Mathieu Van der Poel on day 2, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took his revenge on the Flying Dutchman in Rouen during stage 4 of the Tour de France today.
The Slovenian world champion attacked on the steepest slopes of the finale and eventually made the most of his punch to claim his 100th professional win, and his 18th stage in the Tour.
He is also the first reigning road world champion to claim victory in the race since Julian Alaphilippe at the beginning of the Tour 2021. With the time bonuses, Pogacar is now level on time with Van der Poel in the overall standings but the Oranje star retains the Maillot Jaune due to the addition of places in the first four stages of the race.
Race Highlights
After a rough start of the day, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) attacked as soon the flag dropped, only to be joined by Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Thomas Gachignard (Total Energies) and Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) some 5km later.
Back in the peloton, Van der Poel and his teammates controlled the gap, while the breakaway group stretched its advantage out to 2’10’’ after 49km of racing.
The intensity picked up as the peloton approached the decisive challenges of the day, with Asgreen being the first rider to summit the Côte Jacques Anquetil as the peloton trailed by just 1’10’’.
From there, the gap fell to 20s after the intermediate sprint, where Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) displayed his power, while Martinez dropped his breakaway companions along the Côte de Belbeuf.
However, he and the rest of the breakaway was caught at the bottom of the Côte de Bonsecours, with Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) pushing the pace in the peloton up the Côte de la Grand’Mare before Visma-Lease a Bike took over the reins towards the Rampe Saint-Hilaire.
The final climb of the day saw the group of favorites shredded with the pace set by Jhonatan Narvaéz and Almeida.
Pogacar attacked with 5.4km to go, on the steepest ramps of the final climb, followed by Vingegaard, with no one else able to follow. Pogacar briefly distanced Vingegaard, but did not drop him; the former was the first over the top of the climb.
A chasing group was made up of Almeida, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Almeida. They caught the lead duo with 3.9km to go. Behind, another trio sought to get on – Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), and Kévin Vaquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
With just under 2km to go, Evenepoel launched an attack, chased by Almeida – the move was soon shut down. Jorgenson was next to try and escape, under the flamme rouge marking a kilometre to go.
The race came down to a sprint inside the final 500m, with Van der Poel on the front to begin with, but Pogacar came round at speed in the final 50 meters to take the win. Vingegaard came third.
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