As it happened: former World Champion wins Tour de France stage 4 as new race leader takes over from Tadej Pogačar

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The show is about to begin...

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

A brief reminder of the GC standings courtesy of FirstCycling

181.9 kilometres to go

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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).

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

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.

146 kilometres to go

And the gap is hovering at around 3:40

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) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech).

Some repeat offenders from earlier breaks in this year's Tour, too, including Molenaar, already the mountains leader early on, Pedersen, García Pierna, Van Mechelen and Van den Broek.

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The break is now on the first classified climb of the day, the Cat. 4 Col des Bedos (3.4km at 4.4%).

EF, Soudal, Groupama and Movistar doing a lot of work on the front, all teams with multiple riders in the move.

Mountains classification

Alex Molenaar, already briefly a leader in the 2026 mountains classification after stage 2, grabs the one point on offer at the summit of the Col des Bedos (3.4km at 4.4%).

Everybody likes a Tour de France stage...

Gap still hovering at around 3:20-:3:30 mark

Still to come

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

Riders are now on the second classified climb of the day.

UAE are seemingly content with controlling the break rather than chasing it down, as somewhat controversially happened yesterday. We say 'somewhat' because as Patrick Fletcher writes, there were grumblings in French media over the UAE strategy yesterday.
We have to question the common sense of that' – Tadej Pogačar and UAE's breakaway-killing tactics criticised in French TV debate

Mountain sprint

An uphill sprint ensues for the top of the Col du Paradis (5.6km at 4.3%), taken again by Molenaar, despite EF's best efforts to stop him eating into Alex Baudin's lead.

115 kilometres to go

3:03 the gap

It's hot out there...

A useful stat from the race organisers letour.fr about who in the break has won Tour stages in the past: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) has won no less than 10, most recently in 2025 on stage 1, while Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) has 4 and Biniam Girmay (NSN) 3. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) have two apiece, and Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany Ineos) has won one.

For almost the first time this stage, there are some images of race leader Tadej Pogačar. He's back at the UAE team car, picking up bidons and talking a fair bit to the sports director. Given UAE apparently only decided to go for the win on Monday mid-stage, you can't help wondering if they're discussing their strategy for the remainder of the day.

A reminder of the 34 members of the bunch. As LeTour's website pointed out earlier on, only five teams not represented:
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).

The five missing, for the record, are Visma, UAE, Decathlon, XDS-Astana and Tudor.

The stage's one intermediate sprint at Quilian is less than five kilometres away. Pedersen has already made it clear that he'll be going for the green jersey this year, as is Philipsen, so on paper you can count on both of them to be up there. The one slight questionmark is over Girmay, like Philipsen a former green jersey winner, and whether he'll want to challenge them as well.

91 kilometres to go - gap is rising

And the gap has risen to over 4 minutes for the first time, to 4:13.

35 degrees out there, by the way so maybe not quite as hot as feared, but still pretty baking whichever way you look at it.

A nice shot of the peloton descending on stage 4

Sprint

A cagy build-up amongst the 34 and finally Girmay narrowly gets it.

Immediately after the sprint, the first of the day's two Cat.2 climbs, the biggest challenges of the day, is underway: Cat 2: Col de Coudons (10.9 km at 5.5%).

Girmay, for one, has already sat up, likewise Philipsen. Clearly the sprint points were their target of the day.

The gap for the break has now opened up to nearly five minutes, probably the strongest evidence that UAE are not interested in a third straight stage in as many days. Given it's a flat stage on Wednesday and they don't have a sprinter, they're likely going to take things easy until the mountains on Thursday.

The break is taking a steady but not notably crazy pace on the climb, which makes sense if they don't want to lose too many elements to work on the flatter terrain to follow.

And having just written that, Slovenian veteran Jan Tratnik is trying his best to push on, seven kilometres from the top, with Vacek shadowing him closely.

Nils Politt is on a solo rinse-and-repeat of stage 3, doing lots of the work on the front for UAE, with no less than five Lidl-Trek riders breathing down his neck in the line just behind him.

Vacek and Tratnik lead the way

Vacek and Tratnik are holding an advantage of around 20 seconds on their 30-odd chasers in the break as they move into the final five kilometres of the very long but not excpetionally hard Col de Coudons.

Who saw this coming? Tratnik and Vacek open their gap to 40 seconds.

It has to be said that Tratnik was the last man from the Slovenian National Team when teammate Pogačar blasted off at around this distance for a solo win in the Worlds in 2024, but it seems unlikely he's trying to 'pull a Pog' here. Maybe he just wants to pick up some mountain points.

Summit

Tratnk powers through the top of the Col de Coudons (10.9 km at 5.5%) with zero opposition from Vacek in his bid to get maximum points. The break is now a minute back.

Small crash in the rear of the peloton. Jake Stewart (NSN), and Simone Velasco (XDS-Astana) and an unidentified Alpecin rider go down.

Meanwhile in the break, Molenaar has picked up yet more points in third place over the top of the Coudons, and Mads Pedersen is trying to bridge across to teammate Vacek.

Stewart received some emergency medical treatment for his chin from that uphill crash, the race organisation reports, but is able to return to racing.

Pedersen's counter-charge didn't work out, but Alex Kirsch (Cofidis) is now trying to bridge across to Tratnik and Vacek.

69 kilometres to go

The peloton is now a whopping 7:24 behind, meaning Træen, running at 5:06 down on GC on yellow jersey Pogačar, is now race leader on the road by more than a minute.

Kirsch joins Tratnik and Vacek on the front, making it three at the head of stage 4 of the Tour.

Girmay and Philipsen are finally caught by the peloton, another sign - given how long it is since they were dropped - that the bunch was taking things gently for much of the climb, although they've now begun to speed up.

Florian Vermeersch, riding his first Tour for UAE, has now taken over from Nils Politt as the team workhorse at the front of the peloton.

Tratnik and Vacek in 'the break from the break.'

55 kilometres to go

The gap is now up to 54 seconds for the three leaders. Vacek continues to sit on, but Tratnik and Kirsch are working well.

Five dropped riders from the bunch according to the race website: Arvid De Kleijn, Matteo Trentin and Marco Haller (all Tudor), Kelland O' Brien and Pascal Ackermann (Jayco-AlUla).

This is the second difficult day for De Kleijn, who was the very last rider across the line on Monday.

'This suffering is nothing compared to what I saw' – With late father as inspiration, Arvid De Kleijn just beats time cut at Tour de France

Movistar are making a more notable effort in the chase group, where they have three riders, to bring back the trio of stage leaders.

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We're on the lower, unofficial (as it they don't count in the total length of the climb) slopes of the final Cat.2 ascent of the day, the Col de Montségur (6.9m at 6.1%). The three leaders advantage is already shrinking very fast.

EF also driving hard to bring back Kirsch, Tratnik and Vacek

42 kilometres to go: counter-attackers close in

The trio of stage leaders are hanging off the front by the bare minimum

Kirsch throws in the towel, leaving Tratnik and Vacek out in front. But for how long?

The bunch is trundling along at 8:00, meaning Træen is likely to add a Tour de France lead to the Vuelta lead he already enjoyed for four days last year.

Break caught

Five kilometres from the top of the Montségur, Tratnik and Vacek are caught.

EF, thanks to Michael Valgren, are setting down a searing pace in the break

Valgren's efforts combined with the intense heat see riders of the calibre of former German National Champion Georg Zimmerman (Lotto-Intermarché) out the back.

Former National Champion Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) also out the back amongst multiple dropped riders.

For all EF are trying to shed Træen to give Sean Quinn a chance of yellow, for now it's not working.

Two kilometres from the top, Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) tries to make a move but it's pulled back by the remnants of the break, where Simmons (Lid-Trek) is very active. And as soon as Castrillo is caught, Movistar teammate Raul García Pierna goes for it.

As the road steepens to 11% near the top, there's barely 10 riders in the front group. Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Premier Tech) leads the way, with Simmons in hot pursuit.

Yet another grinding acceleration by Castrillo 700 metres from the top. Of the sprinters originally in the break, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is the biggest name remaining in the front group.

Summit

At the summit of the Col de Montségur, Marco Frigo (NSN) takes maximum points with four other stage leaders. But Lidl-Trek's Vacek and Pedersen are close behind.

First over the top are Castrillo, Garcia Pierna, Debruyne, and Træen, with Simmons, Vacek, Pedersen, Vauquelin, and Quinn just a handful of seconds behind.

The two groups of race leaders fuse to form a front break of 10 and have an advantage of 40 seconds on the Matthews-led chasers, with the bunch at nearly 10 minutes.

It's a broad, fast descent down to Foix, where the Tour will finish for a sixth time and the first since 2022.

The stage leaders

The ten leaders:

Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Torstein Traeen (Uno-X Mobility), Marco Frigo (NSN), Pablo Castrillo and Raúl García Pierna (bth Movistar); Mads Pedersen, Quinn Simmons, Mathias Vacek (all Lidl-Trek), Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) and Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany Ineos)

That's very much advantage Lidl-Trek, then, with three riders in the 10, but Movistar, looking for their first Tour stage win since Nairo Quintana in 2019, will doubtless not go down without a struggle.

24 kilometres to go

50 seconds the gap for the 10 leaders. On paper and barring major changes, the stage win should be for one of them.

Of the leaders, Pedersen and Vauquelin are the only two previous stage winners in the Tour.

Full collaboration from almost everybody in the break of 10, suggesting nobody wants to risk the chasers getting back and diluting their chances of an increasingly hard-to-get transition stage win.

Some of course, like Træen, already have gained a major prize, a spell in the yellow jersey and with a large lead over the other favourites all but in the bag.

Meanwhile in the bunch, an untimely mechanical for Tom Pidcock (Q36.5-Pinarello). It's a quick fix, though, and he should be able to get back on.

16.5 kilometres to go

And the ten now have an advantage of a minute. Surely if anybody wants to get the better of Pedersen, with that kind of gap on what's mostly downhill, the attacks should likely start soon.

A more concerted pace behind from UAE in the bunch, but most likely it's basically to stop any late challenges rather than to regain time on the break.

Castrillo launches an attack for a third time, but Pedersen shuts it down in person.

Træen, meantime, comes through to lay down a much more controlled pace on the fornt, given all he wants is as much time as possible, and García Pierna then makes a second attack for Movistar. No good though.

There will be no change in the Tour's mountains classification leadership, by the way, despite all of Caja Rural racer Alex Molenaar's best efforts, and Alex Baudin (EF Education-First) will remain in top spot for a second straight day

Nine kilometres to go

And as the kilometres tick down, the pendulum's swinging more and more in Pedersen's favour. García Pierna tries his best though, opening up a gap of some 50 metres before Simmons brings him back.

Yet another attack by Castrillo, with Vacek following and then coming through. Frigo, though, shuts it down.

Keep an eye on Vauquelin, mind, he's been sitting on the back and not taking a single turn, clearly waiting for that one chance rather than Movistar's scattergun tactics.

Five kilometres to go

Still the ten riders ahead for the stage win: Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Torstein Traeen (Uno-X Mobility), Marco Frigo (NSN), Pablo Castrillo and Raúl García Pierna (bth Movistar); Mads Pedersen, Quinn Simmons, Mathias Vacek (all Lidl-Trek), Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) and Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany Ineos)

Riders now jettisoning extra weight like bidons to try and maximize their chances in the finale.

Three kilometres to go and still Lidl are controlling this just as they want.

One final (?) attack by Castrillo and that move was more symbolic than real

Two kilometres to go

Still the ten are together. Small bunch sprint ahoy?

Castrillo goes for his umpteenth attack and still not working. The stage is Lidl's to lose.

A fast, sweeping downhill through Foix and then a short uphill and they're there.

Pedersen in second as they go into the final corner.

Pedersen is unstoppable. He takes the stage by three bike lengths or more.

Stage winner

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) wins stage 4 of the Tour de France from Carcassonne to Foix

Vauquelin attempted to surprise Lidl-Trek in the final corner, but really it was no competition. This is Pedersen's third stage at the Tour, his first win this season, and a big handful of points for green as well.

Second was Quinn Simmons, making a great day even better for Lidl-Trek with a 1-2 on the line, with Raúl García Pierna (Movistar) in third.

A first shot of the winner, as Pedersen takes his first win since stage 15 of the Vuelta a España back in 2025.

A tense wait for Uno-X Mobility staff at the finish, as they wait for the minutes to tick by and Torstein Træen to be confirmed as their first ever leader - and by some margin - in the Tour de France.

And the confirmation is through: after four days leading the Vuelta a España last year, Torsten Træen is now in the maillot jaune.

The main peloton finish thirteen minutes down

Pedersen has also moved into the lead of the points competition by 48 points, which was one of his big goals for the 2026 Tour as well.

Here's our full results and report from a day when the maillot jaune moved on for a third time in four days.

Tour de France: Mads Pedersen scorches stage 4 sprint with Quinn Simmons closing for Lidl-Trek one-two as yellow jersey changes hands

Some major changes on the GC, with Træen leading, Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) at 28 seconds, Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) at 3:50 and Pogačar dropping to 7:53. That's a very significant gap, so barring major disasters, it could see Træen in the lead deep into the second week, perhaps as far as the Vosges.

Winner's words:

Some words from the stage winner, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek):

"This was a masterpiece in teamwork, maybe not in climbing, I was suffering a lot on the last climb there. But with Quinn [Simmons] and [Mathias] Vacek there, it was an incredible day, they did incredible for me, making sure we didn't lose too much time over the top" - of the final climb, where Pedersen was a handful of seconds back - "and then they were just machines there, to the finish line. What a team win and a team effort today."
"I had a good talk with Luca [Guercilena, soon to leave the squad - Ed], our team manager before the race and he said, please win me a stage and we thought this was a good one. So this stage is for Luca and all the good years we had together, I'm really thankful for all he did for me."

And here's a shot of Træen in his yellow jersey: a historic moment for his team.

And here's what he had to say about it all:
"It's quite hard for me to understand how big this is, but you can see from the faces of my old coach and soigneur how special it is. Like you don't really understand what's going on, maybe in a couple of days it sinks in, but for now I'll just have to enjoy it."
"I saw the guys [teammates] from the podium, you can see how happy they are, it's always emotional."

Another change in leaders too, is for Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), now heading the Best Young Riders classification, while Lidl-Trek are now leading the teams ranking.

Finally what's in store for tomorrow's stage?

After four GC and/or hilly days, first bunch sprint of the 2026 Tour could materialise, given it's a flat 158 kilometre run from Lannemazan to Pau, with just one climb, the short Côte de Baleix (1.3 km at 7.5%) at km 132.9. But the Pyrenees will always be visible to the south of the riders in the distance, and the race returns in the high mountains on stage 6, so the sprinters will have to make the most of the opportunity.

So that's it from the stage 4 live coverage for Cyclingnews, but there will be more reports, analysis, and post-stage interviews on the site throughout the evening. Then we'll be back with the live coverage again on Wednesday.