Tour de France stage 4 LIVE - Break of 34 goes clear early on heat-blasted day through foothills of Pyrenees

There are so many riders ahead you can break them down into different categories, but there's a notable number of sprinters, including Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Biniam Girmay (NSN), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech);

146 kilometres to go

And the gap is hovering at around 3:40

The most dangerous rider on GC of the 34 is Træen at 5:06. So they can certainly gain a bit more time before the four classified climbs of the day.

UAE keeping nominal control on the bunch and the break's gap is now up to 3:47.

Who's in the break?

34 riders, not 40 as originally reported. And the names are as follows...

Nico Denz and Jan Tratnik (both Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe); Mads Pedersen, Mathias Vacek, Quinn Simmons (all Lidl-Trek), Sean Quinn, Michael Valgren and Georg Steinhauser (all EF Education-EasyPost); Robert Stannard and Vlad Van Mechelen (both Bahrain Victorious); Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany Ineos); Pascal Eenkhorn and Jasper Stuyven (both Soudal-QuickStep); Ramses Debruyne, Edward Planckaert and Jasper Philipsen (all Alpecin-Premier Tech); Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla); Torsten Træen (Uno-X Mobility); Biniam Girmay and Marco Frigo (both NSN); Pablo Castrillo, Raul García Pierna and Nelson Oliveira (all Movistar); Georg Zimmerman (Lotto-Intermarché); Ion Izagirre and Alex Kirsch (both Cofidis); Quentin Hermans and Brent Van Moer (both Q36.5-Pinarello); Romain Grégoire and Ewan Costiou (both Groupama-FDJ United); Alexandre Delettre (TotalEnergies); Frank Van den Broek (Picnic PostNL); Alex Molenaar and Joel Nicolau (both Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

Here's a first shot of the break beginning to form. Full list of names yet to come.

Gap is now up to 2:14. This is definitely happening.

Gap is up to 40 seconds on the peloton for the 40 ahead, and a further group of eight riders, including mountains leader Alex Baudin (EF Education-First) tries and fails to make it across.

Current front group is around 40 strong. That's very large for the opening stages of the Tour, but bear in mind there's been a lot of GC action already so gaps are already very large overall.

TV motorbike dashboard showing a temperature of 40 degrees out there right now.

Not yet clear if this is going to work out because this is a huge group off the front and yet more riders trying to go clear.

A much bigger group has now formed on the front and it would appear the bunch are sitting up. Could be we've got the break of the day.

170 kilometres to go

More riders are trying to bridge the gap from a fully lined-out peloton. There's never a quiet day at the Tour de France...

The move is struggling to get clear, just seven seconds now as break and peloton blast along a flat, treelined country road at full speed.

An early break?

Break alert, around 15 riders go clear including Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), already on the hunt yesterday in a big mid-stage move for points. More names soon, assuming it stays away.

Simmons tried and failed to get clear yesterday mid-stage, too, and James Moultrie has done a long interview with Simmons about his chances of success in taking a stage this year and more:

'I don't want to say I've stopped caring but I've learned to stop beating myself up' – Quinn Simmons takes new mindset into pursuit of career-defining Tour de France stage win

There have been a flurry of early moves and Alex Kirsch (Cofidis) and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) already trying to go clear. So far, nothing's sticking.

On today's menu:

Km 48.2: Climb: Cat. 3. Col des Bedos (3.4km at 4.4%)

Km 65: Climb. Cat. 3 Col du Paradis (5.6km at 4.3%)

Km 93.4: Sprint: Quilan

Km 105.: Climb. Cat 2: Col de Coudons (10.9 km at 5.5%)

Km 147: Climb. Cat 2: Col de Montségur (6.9m at 6.1%)

Km 182.2: Finish: Foix

Much pre-race debate involving what will happen today, whether we'll get a breakaway or a GC day, given the very undulating course. What's clear is that while the Tour is back in France for its first full stage on home soil, the risks of forest fires and extreme heat has not gone away.

181.9 kilometres to go

And they're off. Racing of stage 4 of the 2026 Tour is now underway.

A brief reminder of the GC standings courtesy of FirstCycling

And thee riders are now moving along the neutralised section, a fairly hefty 8.8 kilometres long before racing proper gets underway.

The show is about to begin...

This is the 2026 Tour's first full stage in France this year, incidentally, and the 14th time the race has either started or finished in Carcassonne. Last year, there was a stage won here by Tim Wellens from a 43 kilometre solo break.

Just six minutes to the départ fictif, and the riders will start rolling through the streets of Carcassonne

In case you had forgotten who won on Monday, here's our full report of how a complete unknown (not counting his previous 21 stage Tour wins and four overall victories, that is) gave the top contenders a run for their money.

Tour de France: Tadej Pogačar blasts away from Jonas Vingegaard on final section of Les Angles ascent for stage 3 victory and yellow jersey

This message on social media from the organisers a reminder of what the public should be doing to protect themselves on these days of intense heat.

First prediction for today? It's going to be hot... here's a shot of Damien Howson (Q36.5-Pinarello) wearing an ice vest at the stage 4 start in Carcassonne and he's far from being the only one.

Rankings

A reminder of who's in charge of what in the overall classifications after three days of very tough racing, all of which have featured some GC action.

Overall: Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Points: Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Mountains: Alex Baudin (EF Education First-EasyPost)

Best Young Rider: Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Teams: UAE Team Emirates-XRG

Racing in what looks to be a very undulating transition stage is set to get underway at 1310 local time.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 4 of the 2026 Tour de France.